KARACHI - The COVID positivity ratio has reached above 25 percent in Karachi on Tuesday with the Delta virus spread mounting pressure on the health authorities who were already facing a shortage of COVID facilities at various hospitals and fear a manifold spread if stringent SOPs were not observed during Eidul Adha festivities.
The alarming signals of the COVID spread owing to surge in Delta variant have started to emerge ahead of the Eid ul Adha in Karachi, where citizens prepare to attend Eid congregations, mass events of sacrificing animals and family and others get together.
Secretary of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Dr Qaiser Sajjad has warned that a rapid increase of India’s Delta variant in Karachi could lead the COVID situation out of control.
“I beg people to implement coronavirus SOPs especially while going to Eid congregations, he said and asked people to avoid gatherings at home and outside during Eid ul Adha,” saying that it could lead to a manifold increase in the virus cases. With last minute bid to warn people against the alarming situation, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has asked people to strictly implement COVID SOPs including wearing face masks.
”Between July 13 to 19, the average COVID positivity ratio stood at 18.14 percent and only on July 20, it has touched an alarming level of 25 percent,” the Chief Minister shared and said that such a spike was a cause of great concern for them.
Alarming signs
The alarming signs started emerging two days back when hospitals and isolation centres across the city refused to entertain more COVID patients owing to lack of facilities, a situation that emerged previously when the first wave was at its peak in the city that was less equipped with COVID facilities at that time.
The Indus Hospital, which is among the top health facility dealing with COVID patients, shared that their coronavirus ward and emergency has been filled with the virus patients. Professor Abdul Bari said that the hospital is adding more beds to accommodate patients.
Sindh government’s health officials said that the number of coronavirus patients is increasing in government hospitals. “The government’s Infectious Diseases Hospital at NIPA in Gulshan Iqbal has been filled with patients to its capacity,” they said and added that Corona health facility at Karachi Expo Centre had also been filled with no space for more patients.The Civil Hospital’s 48-bed surgical ward and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) Hospital’s chest ward were being converted into the corona ward to expand the health facilities, the officials said adding that there was also a rising trend of medics being affected by the virus.
Besides, public health facilities, Agha Khan Hospital, that is among the top private health facility, has also started refusing to admit any patients.
On the other hand, government officials say that there has been a rise in the number of sick children in government hospitals of Karachi. Professor Anjum Rehman of the Lyari General Hospital said that children diagnosed with the Delta variant were being admitted at the facility. She added that the hospital was also increasing bed capacity in its coronavirus ward.
In another alarming trend, the health officials have claimed that samples collected randomly from COVID patients admitted at the hospitals showed an alarming surge in Delta virus cases. “Out of 100 samples tested randomly through genome sequencing, we found 92 of them being affected from Delta virus recently,” officials of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) at International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi said.
They further shared that overall testing has found the presence of the Delta virus, which caused devastation in India, in 75 percent of COVID samples.