KIARACHI: Sindh’s daily COVID-19 testing was reduced by less than half of its total per-day capacity on August 17 when authorities confirmed another 243 cases, out of 6,699 samples, with nine new infection related deaths, during the last 24 hours across the province.

According to an official report, laboratories across the province collectively performed tests to the tune of 45% of their total capacity of conducting 14,940 tests daily.

Overall they found 279 positive cases, including the new infections, while 11 of the laboratories in Karachi did not handle any sample at all during the day.

The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, in his routine COVID-19 statement, shared that there were 247 patients in critical condition, among the 394 hospitalized patients in the province, out of which 34 were on ventilators.

In the meantime, Karachi had five COVID-19 fatalities on August 16, one of the deceased patients, who was off-ventilator died at home, according to the official report.

He mentioned the number of the new deaths as 9 at August 17 afternoon taking the total tally of people who lost their lives to the disease in the province to 2,331. He did not provide any detail of the patients who died lately in the province, however.

Karachi, as usual, registered the maximum number of coronavirus cases on August 17 with 102 new infection

The megapolis was followed by Jamshoro (14), Sujawal (9), Tando Allahyar (9), Mirpurkhas (7), Dadu (6), Hyderabad (6), Sukkur (6), Kambar Shahadakot (5), Naushero Feroze (5), Sanghar (5), Tando Mohammad Khan (5), Umerkot (5), Matiari (4), Khairpur (3), Larkana (2) and Ghotki (1).

Sindh’s overall tally of COVID-19 infection reached to 126,425 on August 17 in the national aggregate of 289,831 cases. The province’s share to new cases found across the country on August 17 remained 40%–PNFS