KARACHI: To the disbelief of many, Karachi, the worst affected, among big cities of Pakistan, due to COVID-19 reported its daily new cases very marginally on October 11, which was 22 during the last 24 hours, taking the tally of the infections to 140,294 for the entire province.

The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his daily COVID-19 statement on October 11, shared that in all 163 new cases were detected out of 8,497 tests across the province.

According to him, Karachi division’s four districts registered a total 22 new cases, while two others, South and Korangi, did not report any cases during the last 24 hours ending October 11 morning.

Karachi was the city which reported the first COVID-19 case of the country on February 26 and since then there had been no letup in term of the infection here. Since the outbreak the city reported on an average 400 new cases daily until October 10.

Keen observers were of the view that the October 11 figure was not any true reflection of the disease’s prevalence in Karachi.

According to official data, there were 4,810 active patients of COVID-19 in the province by October 11, including 4,506 receiving the treatment at homes, six in the isolation centres and 298 in hospitals, including 148 critically ill and 22 put on ventilators.

In the meantime, six more expired in the province during the last 24 hours, taking the total of COVID-19 fatalities to 2,555.

The breakdown of the new cases remained as Karachi (22), Hyderabad (9), Dadu (8), Jamshoro (6), Sanghar (4), Ghotki (3), Larkana (3), Matiari (2), Mirpurkhas (2), Sujawal (2), Tando Allahyar (2), Shaheed Benazirabad (1), Shikarpur (1), Tando Mohammad Khan (1), Umerkot (1) and Badin (1). On the other hand, 137 patients recovered from the diseases, taking the tally of cured people to 132,933–PNFS