Day: February 3, 2021

KARACHI: As many as three more patients of coronavirus died overnight in Sindh, lifting the death toll to 4,036 and 649 new cases emerged when 12,035 tests were conducted.

This was stated by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in a statement issued here on Wednesday. He added that three more patients of COVID-19 lost their lives lifting the death toll to 4,036 that constituted 1.6 percent death rate.

Shah said that 12,035 samples were tested which detected 649 cases that constituted 5.4 percent current detection rate. He added that so far 2,757,188 tests had been conducted against which 248,918 cases were diagnosed, of them 91 percent or 226,017 patients had recovered, including 720 overnight.

The CM said that currently 18,865 patients were under treatment, of them 18,134 were in home isolation, 15 at isolation centers and 716 at different hospitals. He added that the condition of 654 patients was stated to be critical, including 69 shifted to ventilators.

According to the statement, out of 649 new cases, 359 had been detected from Karachi, including 199 from East, 98 South, 23 Central, 21 Korangi, 11 West, and 7 Malir. Hyderabad has 108, Sujawal 16, Shaheed Benazirabad 13, Jamshoro and Shikarpur 12 each, Thatta, Badin and Larkana 11 each, Umerkot, Kamber and Sanghar 8 each, Ghotki and Tando Allahyar 7 each, Jacobabad and Khairpur 6 each, Matiari and Naushero Feroze 5 each, Tando Muhammad Khan 3, Sukkur 2 and Dadu 1. The chief minister urged people of the province to follow SOPs.

KARACHI: Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar has directed that Kashmir Solidarity Day be celebrated with full zeal, fervour and devotion.

In a statement today, he appealed to the citizens to actively participate in congregations and rallies to be held on this day while following corona SOPs. A host of functions will be held in the province to commemorate the Kashmir Solidarity Day to give a strong message to the Hindu supremacist Modi regime and the global community that Kashmir belongs to Pakistan, he added.

The CM said the whole nation would express its complete solidarity with the Kashmiri brethren on February 5 that oppressed Kashmiris are not alone in their struggle for freedom. A strong voice would be raised against Indian oppression and brutalities as 220 million people firmly stand with Kashmiris, he said.

“Pakistan and Kashmiris are Siamese twins, he stressed. The wickedness and brutality of the Modi regime has been fully exposed before the world and India cannot retain its illegal occupation over occupied Jammu and Kashmir any longer. Modi believes in Hitler’s philosophy of racial supremacy and this would, eventually, balkanize India,” concluded the CM.

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that being a nuclear country, we should have launched vaccination drive much earlier but thanks to the Chinese government that finally we have made it.

This he said while addressing the launching ceremony of Sinopharm (anti-COVID-19) vaccine here at Dow University Hospital, Ojha Campus on Wednesday. Minister Health Dr Azra Pechuho, Counsel General of China in Karachi, Secretary Health Kazim Jatoi, VC Dow University Saeed Qureshi and other concerned were present on the occasion.

“We are a nuclear power and were running from pillar to post to arrange the vaccine,” he deplored and said, we should have procured it much earlier.” He urged the federal government to talk to other countries and procure the vaccine so that a mass campaign could be launched. He said that the federal government was saying that the vaccine was coming from this country and that country but finally China being our best friend came up to help us and provided a vaccine.

Shah said that Pakistan had received 5,00,000 doses of Sinopharm Vaccine from the Chinese government. We, as a nation, are thankful to the China government. He added that Sindh Province had received 83,000 as the first dose for front line health care workers; and the second dose for these 83,000 front line Health care workers would be received in the second week of February 2021.

The CM said that there were a total of 320,000 health care workers in the province; out of them 180,000 were frontline health care workers. Therefore, we would have to arrange the doses accordingly, he said and added in the first phase, we were going to start a vaccination campaign in three major cities of Sindh, Karachi, Hyderabad and Shaheed Benazirabad due to high positivity rate of COVID-19 Cases. Shah said that COVID-19 Vaccination drive would help stop further transmission of the Pandemic.

According to the chief minister, in first phase, Sindh had established 15 Adult Vaccination Centers in six divisions all over Sindh. “We will vaccinate all the frontline health care workers either they are from government hospitals or private hospitals,” Shah said and added in later stage, the whole population would be vaccinated against the COVID-19 on government expenses.

The CM said that there was no doubt to be proud that the Sindh government had always led in the fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic; and the credit went to our Frontline Health Care Workers. “Alhamdollillah, we have managed both waves of COVID-19, with minimum loss of lives and the economy,” he said and added that now, people have started coming back to normal lifestyle and schools have opened.

Health system has comparatively strengthened in the province, the CM said and added the infrastructure of hospitals had remarkably increased. “At last, it is reiterated that the Pandemic has not yet gone- It is our responsibility to follow the SOPs, wear masks and maintain social distancing,” he said.

Vaccination: The chief minister, along with minister health witnessed administration of the vaccine to two frontline workers and congratulated them to be the first ones in the province to have been vaccinated. On the conclusion of the program the chief minister released colourful balloons just to jubilate the beginning of a new year in the country in general and in the province in particular.

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Local Government Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has removed municipal commissioners of District Central and Korangi and warned MD Karachi Water and Sewerage Board for addressing the public complaints regarding water supply and sewerage.

Shah issued these directives on Wednesday while chairing a meeting regarding development schemes of Karachi. The meeting was attended by Sindh Minister for Education and Labor Saeed Ghani, Special Assistant to Chief Minister Sindh and General Secretary PPP Sindh Waqar Mehdi, General Secretary PPP Karachi Division Javed Nagori, PPP Presidents, General Secretaries and Information Secretaries of all districts of Karachi Division. Secretary Local Government Najam Ahmed Shah, Administrator KMC Laeq Ahmed.

The administrators of all DMCs, Municipal Commissioners, and senior officers of KMC, Karachi Water Board and other department were also present. The meeting reviewed the ongoing development works in Karachi. The PPP office holders complained about the Karachi Water Board office saying that officers didn’t listen to them in solving public complaints about water supply and sewerage issues.

Shah said that on the special directives of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, meeting had been convened for the redressal of grievances of people of Karachi. The water board should focus on closing leakages in the city so that the roads are not damaged. The minister directed that all ongoing development projects should be completed within the stipulated time. “Currently, only Sindh government is carrying out development work in Karachi,” he added. He directed officers to conduct such meetings on district level to strengthen coordination.

Addressing the meeting, Minister Education and Labour Saeed Ghani stated that other political parties were trying to take the credit of development schemes of Sindh government, adding that attempts were made to create impression that development schemes in Karachi were being carried out with a Federal Government package. “The fact is that the federal government had given a lolly pop of a package of Rs 162 billion to the people of Karachi and still not a single penny had been given by the federal government for these projects,” Ghani added.