Is Pakistan Again Advancing Towards a Complete Lockdown ?

WEB DESK: Pakistan was put under a lockdown after the coronavirus cases swelled to over 5,000 in April this year. Is the country advancing towards a complete lockdown again as the number of active cases stand at 22,088 while as many as 30,675 new patients surfaced in the span of a month.

The health experts believe either a complete lockdown or strict implementation of precautionary guidelines is the only solution to stem the virus.

While talking with News360, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) President Dr Hussain Ahmed Haroon suggested imposing a complete lockdown once again.

He said that the government should opt for a complete lockdown instead of smart lockdowns in hotspot areas. The only solution is to confine people, Dr Haroon said.

“Many people still don’t believe that it’s a disease, a deadly one infact and therefore they don’t wear a mask”, the official expressed.

Dr Haroon told that the recovery percentage of patients on ventilators in KP was only 0.2 percent, meaning that only 2 of 1,000 patients on ventilators survive.

The official criticized the government’s policy and termed it weak. The people observing self-isolation at homes have no government check. There must have been an official team to keep an eye on such infected patients, he added.Dr Haroon said that the pandemic virus in Gilgit Baltistan (GB) was spreading rapidly due to the public gatherings of political parties before the election.

Moreover, PMA Sindh General Secretary Dr Qaiser Sajjad opined that there was no need to go for a complete lockdown.

He suggested facemask should be deemed as a ‘vaccine’ until the actual one comes in the market.

“The strategy should be to protect people from the pandemic virus while keeping the economy’s wheel rolling”, he added.

Dr Sajjad urged the masses to follow precautionary guidelines as the virus has come back strongly.

The government should forcibly ensure implementation of SOPs, the medical practitioner said.

Some 115 doctors have died after contracting the virus across the country including 14 who succumbed to it during the second wave.Further, National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has come up with suggestions to close cinemas, theatres, and shrines along with starting early winter vacations in schools after the country gets hit by the second wave of the novel coronavirus.

It has issued a fresh set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for mass gatherings.

The active cases across the country are currently at 22,088 as some new 1,706 infections were reported during the past 24 hours with 34 deaths. The figure is the single-day highest since July 23.

The active cases had gone below 5,000 and at one point it seemed that the country would soon beat the virus but the situation flipped.

Under such conditions, the likelihood of the country being put under a lockdown yet again cannot be ruled out.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) announced that it would not hold more public gatherings that it had planned to counter Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) however its electioneering in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) is in full swing.

Meanwhile, the PDM has announced that it would hold public gatherings despite threat of virus spread.

The disregard for precautionary SOPs across the country is on the rise too.

The surge in cases has not been able to compel masses to implement precautionary guidelines to stay protected during the pandemic situation.