KARACHI                  -           Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the number of coronavirus cases in the province has reached 627, including 293 of local transmission.

He said that there were 566 cases on March 30. “This shows an increase of 61 cases during the last 24 hours,” he added.

While presiding over the meeting of the Taskforce on Coronavirus here at the CM House on Tuesday, he said that of the 627 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Sindh, 272 or 43 percent were pilgrims, 62 or 10 percent had a travel history while 293 or 47 percent were of local transmission.

He further said that during the last 24 hours, 57 cases of local transmission had been detected. “This new phenomenon of local transmission is worrying, and we have to contain it through strict measures,” the CM stressed.

The health department official told the chief minister that isolation wards besides other facilities for the treatment of coronavirus patients had been provided at 45 hospitals of the province.

“At present 315 patients are under treatment, of whom 310 are stable and five are in a critical condition. Some 263 are in quarantine at their homes and 42 have recovered while seven patients have died,” the official told Murad.

He further told him that of the 1,388 samples of the suspected patients, which the Sindh health department had tested, results of 1,329 had been received, out of which 272 or 20 percent had been diagnosed as positive.

The chief minister, on the occasion, stressed that the purpose of lockdown would only be achieved when everyone would observe social distancing voluntarily. “I would again like to request the people to please stay at home, be safe and keep others safe too,” he said.

Murad chairs relief team meeting:

Meanwhile, chairing a meeting of his relief team on Tuesday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah directed the provincial minister Imtiaz Shaikh and his team members to get the required data from the federal government agencies such as NADRA and PDMA so that relief work could be started in the province.

The relief team is comprised of Imtiaz Shaikh, Saeed Ghani, Nasir Shah, Murtaza Wahab and Haris Gazdar, who told him that they were ready to start the relief work. “We have requested the federal government agencies such as NDMA and NADRA to provide us the data we had asked them for. We are waiting for the data so that work could get underway,” they told the chief minister.