- CM Shah to chair meeting of COVID-19 task force today.
- Federal health officials warn of 50% infection rate in Karachi.
- 430 Omicron variant cases have been detected in Karachi.
KARACHI: Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah has convened a meeting of the Provincial Task Force over the rising coronavirus cases across the province, especially Karachi, as the positivity ratio in the port city reached 35.30% in the last 24 hours.
According to sources, members of the COVID-19 body, the Sindh Health Department, and health experts will attend the meeting to talk about the ongoing situation in the city.
Sharing a report on the COVID-19 situation, CM Shah said Friday 23 of 24 samples were found to be of the Omicron variant in Karachi when they were analysed through Next Genome Sequencing and Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) at Karachi’s Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) and Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), The News reported.
He maintained so far, 430 infections of the Omicron variant have been detected in Karachi, adding that 3,089 new cases of COVID-19 were reported when 15,719 tests were conducted in Sindh.
The chief minister said out of 3,089 new cases, 2,846 have been detected from Karachi.
Hyderabad has reported 104 cases, Shaheed Benazirabad 25, Sujawal 22, Naushahroferoze 19, Matiari 15, Mirpurkhas 14, Tando Allahyar 11, Tharparkar eight, Badin and Sanghar seven each, Larkana six, Umerkot five, Dadu and Ghotki four each, Sukkur three, Kashmore and Tando Muhammad Khan two each, Jacobabad and Jamshoro one each.
Separately, speaking to journalists in Karachi, CM Shah had also said the decision to impose a lockdown and close educational institutions will be taken in line with the NCOC’s recommendations.
CM Shah had said that the coronavirus cases were spreading at a rapid pace, but the situation was under control as hospitalisations and patients in intensive care units (ICU) in the port city were less.
Will Karachi’s infection rate increase further?
Meanwhile, federal health officials told Geo News that they expected the situation in Karachi to change in the coming week as the positivity ratio might hit 50%, leading to an increase in hospitalisations.
The officials also said that cases were expected to shoot up to 6,000.
Pakistan records highest infections since August 25
Meanwhile, Pakistan reported the highest number of cases — 4,286 — since August 25, 2021, in the last 24 hours, the National Command and Operation’s Centre (NCOC) data showed Saturday morning, as compared to 3,567 a day earlier.
The positivity ratio also shot up to 8.16%, the highest since August 11, when 52,522 tests were conducted across the country, according to the NCOC data.
The overall cases have reached 1.32 million after the detection of new infections, while the death toll now stands at 29,003 as four deaths were reported from the coronavirus in the last 24 hours.