Karachi, Pakistan — 74 cases of coronavirus in Karachi reported positive today. All cases are locally transmitted. This is the highest number of COVID-19 cases reported in any city of Pakistan in a single day.
Despite rising in coronavirus cases, traders associations in Karachi plan to open the markets from April 15th, 2020. Due to lockdown by Sindh Government majority of the businesses in Karachi are closed since 23rd March 2020.
In Pakistan, more people are afraid to fall prey to financial distress than the coronavirus outbreak. The partial lockdown in the city has badly affected all large, medium and small-scale businesses as well as daily-wage earners.
Lockdown likely to extend due to coronavirus in Sindh including Karachi
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Thursday asserted that the provincial government wants to prolong the lockdown across the province by one week after April 14 till April 21.
“The Sindh cabinet will take the final decision about the lockdown,” CM reportedly said. “We are preparing SOPs for everything including industries and factories,” he further added.
Murad Ali Shah said that lockdown across whole Sindh will not be lifted at once but through a proper process. “If factories are opened, a minimum number of employees will work in them,” he said.
Is this a good time to ease lockdown in Sindh, especially in Karachi?
The official data placed by the government of Sindh on its website illustrate a rising trend for the coronavirus cases in Karachi. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough data on the portal to see how many cases have emerged in different regions of Karachi.
To give us a clearer picture, FELTP-Pakistan also known as The Field Epidemiology & Laboratory Training Program Pakistan has published a detailed report on COVID-19 cases in Karachi. The content of the report includes all the hotspot areas of Karachi, where the cases of coronavirus have emerged. It clearly shows both, the frequency of coronavirus cases in an area and the population of that particular region.
