Lyari emerges as new coronavirus hotspot after 67 test positive.

Byline: Imran Ayub and Tahir Siddiqui

KARACHI -- The Sindh government as well as the political leadership of the province are caught in another challenge after finding Lyari and its neighbouring areas as a new hotspot for the Covid-19 pandemic, where in just two days more than 60 people were tested positive for coronavirus. The situation demands immediate and strong measures from the authorities for the densely populated neighbourhood, officials and sources said on Sunday.

The situation has also caused a stir at the Chief Minister House where CM Syed Murad Ali Shah directed the district administration, health officials of the area and security high-ups to move fast for all possible measures to prevent the outbreak in the neighbourhoods, where any negligence and relaxation could cause a 'huge disaster'.

The CM assigned senior Pakistan Peoples Party leader Waqar Mehdi, who is his special assistant on inspection and inquires, to look into the situation and devise an urgent plan to contain the spread of the virus.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Mehdi agreed to the CM's concerns, but reiterated that the district administration and government machinery was fully activated to keep things under control.

'The situation is critical in the sense that in only two days we have registered 67 patients in the Lyari and Garden areas,' he told Dawn. 'It's not like that we had no case of Covid-19 in district South or Lyari neighbourhoods before, but the worrying thing is that the fresh cases have been reported from katchi abadis, which are so densely populated. Before the fresh 67 cases, we had coronavirus patients in Civil Lines and areas of Cantonment Board in district South. The fresh trend doesn't sound good.'

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Rapid testing

A political party activist in Lyari termed the situation 'critical' and said that the standard of living, general lifestyle of the people and history of the area did not allow many lockdown restrictions, ultimately leading to violation of the defined guidelines, or standard operating procedures, announced by the government and health experts to maintain social distancing.

'In only one union council, which is called Bihar Colony, some 17 people were tested positive by Saturday afternoon,' he said. 'The fact is the lockdown like other parts of the city is not that effective in Lyari or areas like these in district South. People don't follow...