KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali has said that with detection 287 new coronavirus cases in Sindh, the viral disease cases tally has risen to 4,232 while three more patients succumbed to the virus on Saturday, taking the province-wide viral disease death toll to 78.

In his daily video message from the CM house, he said that 2,599 tests were conducted against which 287 new cases were diagnosed as positive. “The number of total tests conducted so far comes to 38,188 through which 3,945 cases have been detected,” he said.

Giving details of the 3,353 patients, Shah said that 2,146 were under treatment at their home isolation, 767 at Isolation centers and 439 at hospitals. “At present, 30 patients are in critical conditions, of them, 14 have been put on ventilators,” he disclosed. He said that 30 coronavirus patients recovered on Saturday and the number of patients recovered so far is 802 which constituted 19 percent of the total patients.

The chief minister said that the cases were on the increase in Karachi. He added that in Central District, 37 new cases had been diagnosed, 57 in East, 79 in South, 18 in West, eight in Malir and five in Korangi. “This shows that out of 287 new cases, 199 have been detected in Karachi and 88 in other districts,” he said.

The chief minister said that coronavirus had penetrated in other districts of the province. He added that 17 cases had been diagnosed in Larkana, 13 in Hyderabad, 11 in Shikarpur and seven in Sukkur. “This is a very serious situation and we will have to adopt precautionary measures as advised by WHO and local experts,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah launched Counseling & Psycho-social support service during COVID-19 emergency which could be reached on helpline 1093, web page COVIDPSS.PK and community-based psychosocial support mobile app on android and IOS.

He performed launching ceremony by dialing 109 and inquired about the services available on the helpline. The local government department has launched the service with the support of the health department, UNICEF & UNDP. The CM was briefed that 100,000 affected children, women and men mainly through online platform would be counselled.