Three Karachi districts witnessed more than 100% increase in the coronavirus positivity rate in the past week, Sindh Health Department said Friday.
The province’s health department said that the reason behind the sharp spike in coronavirus positivity rates is because citizens have not been following the standard operation procedures (SOPs). According to the health department, District Korangi recorded a rate of 2% last week, which rose to 16% on January 28, while District Malir recorded a rate of 2%, which rose to 9%.
Last week, District Central recorded a rate of 4%, which has risen to 15%, while the lowest increase has been recorded in District West – which witnessed an increase from 3% to 4%. On a positive note, in District East, the rate came down from 33% to 21%, the department said, adding that the positivity rate also went down in District South from 15% to 13%.
Sindh Information and Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Friday said that Sindh will start a Covid-19 vaccination drive from Wednesday, February 3. “In the first phase of the vaccination drive, front line healthcare workers will be inoculated, ” he said. “The Sindh health department has allocated Rs1.5 billion for Covid-19 vaccine.” The national tally of total active Covid-19 cases in the country on Friday reached 32,726 with 1,644 more people tested positive for the deadly virus and 2,167 people recovered from the disease. Forty-six corona patients died, 38 of whom in hospitals and eight in their respective homes or quarantines, according to the latest update of the National command and Operation Centre (NCOC). Most of the deaths occurred in Punjab, followed by Sindh. Out of the 46 deaths, 17 patients died on ventilators.
