KARACHI: Sindh, witnessing a relative dropping in its daily COVID-19 fatalities, reported its disease death tally surpassing 2,000 on July 20 when authorities in the government confirmed 26 new deaths during the last 24 hours, with 535 patients admitted in critical conditions at hospitals.

The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah in his daily COVID-19 status statement, declared that the number of related fatalities reached 2019 during the last 24 hours ending on July 20 morning, with 546 new cases.

“In all 712 infected people are hospitalized, out of which 535 are in critical condition, including 75 those put-on ventilators,” he stated.

According to official data, 613 patients have died of COVID-19 in July. The death tally was 1,406 on July 1, which rose to 1713 on July 10, 1,826 on July 13 and 1,922 on July 16.

However, any district wise segregation of fatalities was not made available by the Sindh health department.

Sindh registered 113,007 COVID-19 infections till July 19 with a case fatality rate of 1.76%, against Pakistan’s total 265,083 cases notified since the beginning of the outbreak with 5,599 deaths (CFR– 2.11%).

“As of July 19, of the 53,555 currently active cases, 2,541 cases are hospitalized, out of which 1,552 (61.07%) are in critical condition. 51,014 COVID-19 positive cases are at designated isolation facilities or in-home isolation,” a report updated by an international health agency noted.

On July 20, Sindh’s new cases were reported at Karachi (179), Khairpur (29), Ghotki (21), Sukkur (18), Tando Mohammad Khan (17), Hyderbad (16), Sujwal (15), Jamshoro (15), Larkana (13), Jacobabad-13, Naushero Feroze (11), Umerkot (9), Matiari (9), Kashmore (8), Shikarpur (8), Mirpurkhas (7), Dadu (4), Thatta (4), Sanghar (3), Shaheed Benazirabad (1), and Badin (1), as per the Chief Minister’s statement.

An official report said that of the 295 intensive care unit beds allocated for COVID-19 patients in Karachi, 74 were occupied by patients who required ventilators while another 105 patients were off-ventilators.

On the other hand of the 91 ICU beds reserved for COVID-19 patients at hospitals in Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana and Shaheed Benazirabad, only 16 were occupied by off-ventilators patients.

A World Health Organization (WHO) Sindh sub-office report revealed that as of July 19, the infection attack rate was maximum in the Karachi division at 512 every 100,000 population, followed by 230 in Sukkur, 190 in Hyderabad, 190 in Ghotki, 132 in Larkana, 110 in Shikarpur, 109 Khaipur, 108 in Jamshoro and other districts–PNFS