Pakistan govt to review its lockdown ease decision after Eid if the situation gets worse
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr. Zafar Mirza expressed concerns that coronavirus cases may rise in the coming days and said that the government is considering rolling back the relaxations in the lockdown. He noted that the virus is still very much here, and people are not taking the situation seriously.
“Unfortunately, there is now this thinking among us that this disease [Covid-19] was only here till Eid and that somehow it’ll disappear after Eid. This is a huge misunderstanding,” Mirza said. “I urge the nation to act with extreme responsibility to curb the spread of the virus. The cases are rising very fast, and we need to be careful, more than ever,” he added.
Similar concerns were voiced by WHO emergencies head Dr. Mike Ryan who said that a second wave of COVID-19 could affect the countries where the virus is on the downturn. “When we speak about a second wave, classically what we often mean is there will be a first wave of the disease by itself, and then it recurs months later. And that may be a reality for many countries in a number of months’ time,” Ryan said.
“But we also need to be cognizant of the fact that the disease can jump up at any time. We cannot make assumptions that just because the disease is on the way down now, it is going to keep going down and we are get a number of months to get ready for a second wave. We may get a second peak in this wave,” he added.
Dr. Mirza reiterated that the number of cases in the country is low, with 112 patients in critical condition. It is, however, necessary to stay home to stop the disease from spreading further.
The government relaxed the lockdown ahead of Eid to help people travel and shop as well as help businesses recover from lengthy closures. The number of daily cases has recently increased in the country. Thus far, there are nearly 58,000 positive COVID-19 tests in the country. More than 18,000 people have recovered while approximately 1,200 has passed away.
[…] Eid shoppers to make their purchases. In a recent press conference, Dr. Zafar Mirza had hinted at re-imposing the lockdown. However, the suggestion has not been formally approved or announced thus […]
[…] Pakistan has been in lockdown for months now. Over some time, the restrictions have been minimized, and certain aspects of life have returned to normalcy. However, this poses a risk of a spike in the number of cases, especially after marathon Eid shopping recently observed. Prime Minister’s special assistant Dr. Zafar Mirza recently hinted that the lockdown could be re-imposed. […]