Coronavirus Update: Local transmission rise phenomenally

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Increasing day by day, the proportion of local transmission rose to 96% of the total COVID-19 cases across Sindh on June 15 as the provincial health department confirmed registration of another 1,776 news cases of the virus, with 22 fatalities.

Official data said that of the 53,805 coronavirus positive cases, there were 1,723 (3%) cases returning from other countries, in addition to 280 (01%) of Pakistani pilgrims, coming from Iran. 

Until May 15, the breakdown of confirmed cases in Sindh was: Zaireen from Taftan (Iran) 280 (2%), imported from other countries 718 (5%), and locally transmitted cases 13,918 (93%), which gave to understand that the locally transmitted cases grew exponentially while impact of Pakistani coming back from abroad was nominal.

According to health department daily summary, as many as 22 COVID-19 patients lost their lives across the province during the last 24 hours ending at 9 am on June 15 taking the tally of fatalities to 853 for the province. 

Karachi reported the deaths of 12 men and six women. The deceased men were aged from 45 to 82 years while the women were in the age brackets of 40 to 64 years. Another three men, aged between 33 to 64 years, died at Larkana, Sanghar and Kambar Shahdadkot while an 80-year-old woman passed away at Ghotki. 

So far, as many as 700 COVID-19 patients died at Karachi, followed by Hyderabad (34), Larkana (17), Sukkur (13), Shikarpur (11), Sanghar (8), Khairpur (7), Ghotki (6), Badin (5), Kambar Shahdadkot (4), Thatta (4), Kashmore (4), Mirpurkhas (4), Shaheed Benazirabad (3), Naushero Feroze (3), Sujawal (3), Dadu (2), Matiari (2), Jacobabad (2), Jamshoro (1) and Tando Muhammad Khan (1). 

Of the 9,080 samples tested for COVID-19 during the last 24 hours, 1,776 were positive, as such the daily rate of new infection remained 19.55%.

The new infections at Karachi remained 1,391, followed by Kashmore (66), Hyderabad (57), Ghotki (47), Khairpur (34), Larkana (30), Sukkur (27), Jacobabad (27), Mirpurkhas (25), Thatta (24), Jamshoro (15), Kambar Shahdakot (11), Shaheed Benazirabad (10), Shikarpur (8), Dadu (7), Badin (7), Tando Allahyar (6), Umerkot (6), Tando Mohammad Khan (4) and Naushero Feroze (1). 

There were 26,705 active cases of COVID-19, while 28,023 recovered from the diseases. Proportion of women contracting the virus came as 29% on June 15. 

There were 233 patients in the intensive care units of different hospitals of Karachi, while another 324 in the high dependency units and 195 in the isolation wards of hospitals in Karachi, according to an official report, updated at 10 am on June 15. 

Karachi, with 42,681 positive cases, ranked first among the top 20 virus infected cities of the country, followed by Lahore (26,374), Quetta (6,643), Peshawar (5, 575) and other cities.