Sindh govt to establish 14 new well-equipped CCUs, including one in Karachi

KARACHI, Mar 28 (APP):Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has decided to establish 14 Critical Care Units (CCUs) across the province, including one in Karachi and they must be equipped with ventilators, monitors, pulse oximeter, suction machines, defibrillator and compressors.

He issued directives to the health department while presiding over 31st meeting of Task Force on Corona virus here at CM’s House here, said a spokesperson to the CM.

The meeting was attended by Minister for health Dr Azar Fazal Pechuuho, Minister for Local Government Nasir Shah, Advisor to the CM on Law Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, IG Home Mushtaq Maher, ACS Home Usman Chachar, Secretary Health Zahid Abbasi, Brigadier Abul Sami COS 5 Corps, representatives of Rangers, FIA, airport, CAA, Dr Bari, Dr Faisal and Focal Person MB Dharejio.

Syed Murad Ali Shah said that during the on-going lock down we have to strengthen our health facilities. “I want you [health dept] to establish new 14 CCUs, one in Karachi and 13 in other thickly populated districts.

The Sindh Chief Minister decided to establish new 14 critical care units (CCU) across the province and said that one CCU with 100-200 vent beds in the city and 13 CCU with 600 vent beds in different district of the Sindh would be established.

He directed health secretary to equip the newly proposed vent bed CCU with ventilators, monitors, pulse oximeters, suction machines, compressors and also provide them 850 medical officers, 1320 nurses, ICU technicians and auxiliary staff.

He said that the CCU to be established in the city should have 200 ventilators, 200 monitors, 200 pulse Oximeters, 50 suction machines, 20 defibrillator and 50 compressors. The facility should have 100 doctors, 200 nurses, 75 ICU technicians and 120 auxiliary staff.

The chief minister was told that in the province 45 hospitals have COVID-19 Isolation case management facilities. These 45 hospitals have 505 bed where 294 patients have been admitted and 291 were clinically stable and 14 of them have already recovered and released to their homes.

The chief minister was told that there were 469 cases of Corona in Sindh. They include 189 of Karachi, seven of Larkana, one of Dadu, seven of Hyderabad and 162 of Sukkur (151 of Sukkur phase-I and 114 of Sukkur phase-II).

The meeting was told that total 5322 tests have been conducted so far, of them 4835 came negative while 469 diagnosed as positive.

The chief minister said that in Karachi 12 new cases have emerged on Saturday while on March 27 the number of new cases was 17. “Data shows that the cases of local transmission have reached to 132,” he said. Syed Murad Ali Shah said that during the last three days 41 (March 26 to 28) have been detected.

It may be noted that 63 persons of the city, had travel history. One of them came from Italy, eight from Syria, six from Dubai, six from Iran, one from Qatar, seven from Saudi Arabia, six from Turkey, five from US, two from Switzerland, 11 from UK and one from Iraq.

The client status us 150 are in isolation at their homes, 14 were cured, one died and the reaming 20 persons are under treatment in the different hospitals of the city.

Daily report submitted by the government hospitals shows that 1874 patients were diagnosed as suspect of pneumonia, of them 53 were tested while the private hospitals submitted a lits of 702 among them only 26 were tested. At present 150 are in home isolation and 34 in isolation wards of different hospitals.

Data shows that 189 cases are in Karachi, 265 in Sukkur, one in Dadu, seven in Hyderabad and seven in Larkana.

The CM Sindh said that the data of 429 cases showed that 265 were pilgrims means they were 62 persent, 13 percent or 54 people came from other countries and 110 or 25 percent were of local transmission. “The local transmission ratio is worrisome and needs to be contained further,” he said.

The Inspector General of Sindh Police Mushtaq Maher briefed the chief minister about the lock down, particularly of closing down the shops and other small business activities from 5 pm from Saturday.

He said that the police of the are had informed the shopkeepers that they would have to close their establishments by 5 pm. “Every one was informed and onboard about the government decision,” he said.

He said that the police mobile had started patrolling in their respective areas from 4 pm so that the shopkeepers start closing their activities at 5 pm. He said that everything was moving smoothly.

Syed Murad Ali Shah strictly directed the IG police not to insult or humiliate any person. “You have to politely inform the visitors to return their homes and in case of resistance action must be taken, otherwise dignity of any person, including children should not be hurt,” he said.