KARACHI: Sindh was the first province to take precautionary measures when coronavirus came to Pakistan. The Chief Minister of Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah ordered to close all the educational institutions till May 31 and postpone the upcoming examinations. Quarantine centres were set up in many cities including Sukkur, Hyderabad, Dadu and others.
It was CM Sindh who proposed to impose lockdown in the province and in the country to stop spread of COVID-19. But the federal government didn’t take anything seriously at first. Things got worse when dozens of cases emerged in just one week.
Now, the entire country is in the lockdown state and people are advised to stay at their homes in order to avoid getting infected by the pandemic. Markets close by 5 and there are orders of ‘no-movement on the streets’ after 8p.m.
However, after all these solid measures by the government of Sindh, the province still sees increasing cases of coronavirus day by day. More than 400 cases have been reported till filing of this report and as many as 14 deaths have been reported. Many people are in the quarantine centres in Karachi and other cities.
According to a report, there are only 179 ventilators in Sindh to treat coronavirus patients. There is a population of more than 47.8 million people, that makes one ventilator for 300,000 people. Seems the province is facing a dire shortage of ventilators amid COVID-19 crisis.
Te report, published by the Sindh health department, claims that many districts are ventilator-less. This means the coronavirus patients in those districts are just spending time in quarantine without lifesaving medical equipment. These districts include Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Umerkot, Ghotki, Badin, Sujawal, Kashmore and Sanghar.
Four districts of Karachi are also waiting for the ventilators which Sindh’s health department had ordered last month.
“We have ordered 300 ventilators, and still waiting for them. Once they arrive, we will distribute them through the district coordinators,” said Media Coordinator to the Health Minister of Sindh.
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