Daily Times

Along with Ziauddin Hospital Chairman Dr Asim Hussain, the chief minister appreciated the establishment of the COVID-19 isolation and treatment facility in Keamari.

He said the group of hospitals was playing an important role in the treatment and management of COVID-19 patients in Karachi.

“We have established 50-Beds Covid-19 Isolation Ward because there is no Covid-19 hospital in this area. We have proper ICU, HDUs and isolation ward including ventilators. We already have Covid-19 wards in both North and Clifton campuses of Dr Ziauddin Hospital”, said Dr Asim Hussain, Chairman, Dr Ziauddin Hospital, while talking to the media at a press conference on the occasion of inaugural ceremony of Covid ward. Answering the question about the Corona funding from the government, he said that neither we take any money from the government nor do we want to. In fact the government itself offered us to take Covid-19 patients but we turned down the offer. Government better use its own government hospitals.

Since people were not taking the viral disease a serious threat, he said, people were avoiding tests and treating themselves at homes “which is dangerous”. On a question about online education, he said the government didn’t have the capacity to start education on campus or online. “The Ziauddin University has its own online system. We have an online student portal and we are taking online classes and exams. I don’t think the government has any capacity to do this at all.” Dr Asim emphasized the need to change the outdated syllabus by saying “there are 2 important things in any education system, curriculum and syllabus.” He said: “We can follow the national curriculum but the syllabus should be changed according to every board’s requirement. Our children are studying outdated books in almost every course and we need to change our syllabus. My concern is only to have an updated syllabus.”

Murad said so far 553,676 samples had been tested against which 102,368 cases were detected all over Sindh. He said the overall detection rate stood at 18.5 per cent. “Currently, 41,490 COVID-19 positive patients are in the province, of whom 39,859 are in home isolation, 400 at isolation centres and 1,231 at different hospitals. The condition of 1069 patients is critical and 113 of them have been shifted to ventilators.” The CM said 1,538 more patients recovered from the virus in a day and the total number of recovered patients had reached 59,165.

The chief minister said out of 1,468 new cases, 592 were from Karachi. They include 175 from south, 167 from east, 100 from Korangi, 78 from central, 43 from Malir and 29 from west districts. He said Hyderabad had 82 new cases, Shaheed Benazirabad 72, Ghotki 71, Khairpur 54, Tando Allahyar 50, Sukkur 47, Jamshoro 42, Thatta 39, Kashmore 38, Kambar 27, Mirpurkhas 26, Sujawal 22, Tando Mohammad Khan 20, Badin 16, Shikarpur 15, Larkana 13, Jacobabad seven, Sanghar six, Dadu and Umerkot three each and Naushehro Feroze two.