Coronavirus Update: Karachi’s tally surpasses 30,000

By Mukhtar Alam
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Karachi’s overall COVID-19 infection tally surpassed 30,000, with overall 540 deaths, on June 7 when the authorities registered another 1,482 new cases in the mega polis where hospitals’ intensives care units were reportedly under immense pressure due to growing number of critically patients.

According to some considered researches, the pandemic, accepted as a viral pneumonia sickness, requires intensive care unit (ICU) admission, significant follow-up and management of the critically ill patients.

It’s being said that 20-25% of patients admitted to hospitals become critically ill requiring treatment in either a high-dependency (HD) or IC unit, while 70-80% of the critically ill patients required mechanical ventilation to support breathing. Internationally, 35-40% of the critically don’t survive the diseases. 

The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his routine updates statement on June 7, said that of the 18,682 under treatment COVID-19 patients, 414 were in critical conditions at hospitals across the province, while 67 of those were on ventilators. 

In the meantime, an official report revealed that as of June 7 only 11 intensive care beds were vacant at two private and one government hospitals in Karachi, while 148 were occupied, whereas 211 out of 377 HDU beds were occupied at 11 hospitals.

The HDU beds were vacant at the Civil Hospital Karachi (102 beds), Lyari General Hospital (59), National Institute of Child Health (4) and the Aga Khan University Hospital (1). 

According to the Sindh health department summary, 14 of the newly reported COVID-19 deaths occurred at Karachi hospitals, followed by Hyderabad (2) and others. 

As many as 10 patients of age ranging from 23 to 76 years were men while the remaining victims were women in the age brackets of 45 to 75 years. At Hyderabad, two women aged 70 and 75 respectively died. 

However, there was no mention of whether the deceased patients were hospitalized or were in home-isolation. 

An official report gave to understand that about 145 COVID-19 patients died at home or on their way to hospitals. Another data showed that as of June 6 as many as four patients died off-ventilators, including three at home.

In the meantime, Sindh’s overall tally of infections reached to 38,108, out of which 18,682 recovered from the diseases, while 17,257 were isolated at homes and only 63 were admitted at the government-run isolation centres. 

In addition to Karachi’s 1,482 new infections, Hyderabad reported 54 new cases, followed by Larkana (38), Shaheed Benazirabad (32), Sukkur (29), Dadu (23), Ghotki (22), Mirpurkhas (14), Khairpur (12) and other districts.