Coronavirus Update: Infection rate unchanged in Sindh

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

The overall rate of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Sindh remained almost unchanged on April 6 when it was declared by the government that different set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for post lockdown era was in the offing. 

Another 51 people out of 658 tested at different government designated testing centres were found infected. The latest rate came as 9.71% in comparison to 9.86% of April 5, 10.38% on April 3. No official data was released on April 4. 

As per the data, the Sindh health department tested 658 people in 24 hours ending at 8am on April 6, out of which 7.75 samples were confirmed corona positive. Similarly, another 51 samples were assessed on April 5, out of which 5.43% were positive, while 47 (9.63%) out of 488 tested on April 3 were detected positive. 

An analysis suggests that the average every day percentage of new infection remained lower than the overall Covid-19 infection in the province since February 26 when the first corona infection of Sindh and country was confirmed in a young man, who had the history of travelling Iran, a country facing the onslaught of the virus that originated from China in mid-December 2019 and took almost the entire world in its grip. 

Though peaceful with the existing contained rate of the corona tests in the province, experts at the same time stressed the need for expanding the testing activities to have any practicable picture or trend of the infection. 

Considering the population of Sindh, estimated to be around 55 million, an expert reckoned that government has been able to test only 9,600 people (0.017%) so far, which remained a negligible rate in comparison to other infected countries. 

In Sindh, the disease has spread in 19 districts, including six districts of Karachi, claiming 18 deaths. The last death was that of a physician serving in the Malir district of Karachi.