Karachi’s district to provide coronavirus test reports within 10 minutes

KARACHI: The reports of the coronavirus test in District South of the city will now be provided within 10 minutes, a step that would improve testing process in city that has witnessed most of the cases in the province, ARY NEWS reported.

The process was witnessed by Special Assistant to CM Sindh Waqar Mehdi, who underwent the test at the facility in district South.

The special assistant, who tested negative, was provided with test results within 10 minutes.

Later, Waqar Mehdi chaired a meeting of rapid response coronavirus test where Deputy Commissioner (DC) South briefed that he had formed special teams to conduct rapid testing in the district.

“We will try to conduct maximum testing in the district using this process,” he said.

It was also decided to increase the number of isolation wards in district South to provide better facilities to those contracting the virus.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday said that 138 new cases of coronavirus have been reported in the province after tests were performed on 2217 suspected patients.

In a video message, the chief minister said that one more patient died during last 24-hours, bringing the provincial tally to 48 as overall 2355 are infected from the virus.

“11 people recovered from the infection in 24-hours as the total number of patients who recovered in the province now stand at 592,” he said.

Murad Ali Shah expressed his concern over rising number of coronavirus cases from populated areas of the South and East districts in Karachi and said that more cases have popped up from Lyari, Kharadar and Bihar Colony areas.

“We are improving the testing capacity in slum areas of the city,” he said but warned that the situation could only be tackled by maintaining social distancing.