Pakistan Fighting Third Wave of Covid-19

Munaza Kazmi

Earlier on 24 February, the National Command and Operation Centre have relaxed most of the Covid-19 related restrictions, the focus was on financial concerns rather than public health. Commercial activities, schools, offices and other areas have been allowed to function in full strength. Moreover, the SOP’s were also been ignored so far, there comes notices and boards everywhere saying, “No mask No entry”, however ironically the owner of that property himself not wearing mask or following SOP’s. Also, there are Sanitization gates installed in every nook and corner, however for showcasing only, even the concept of social distancing and contact less shopping or check inns have been vanished or I should better say, never been enforced.

Besides if we talk about the vaccination, no one at the helm had bothered to handle the issue seriously. The absurdity is, for the vaccination campaign TV Actors have been employed, rather than recognized doctors. The question is, “How a person can get medical advice from an actor”?

Moreover, am of the suggestion that, advertisements related to vaccination should be shown during peak hours. Currently, we see bombardment of advertisements during PSL matches but we don’t see a single ad on vaccination during matches. Also, data of people and the health workers, who have been vaccinated so far, is not being shared. Due to this the populace have no idea about the results and aftereffects.

Reasoning the relaxation and avoidance of rules, once again COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in Pakistan are increasing. The decline seen over the past 2 months is clearly reversing as positivity has gone up from 3.31% to 4.16% within a week. We must remember that the pandemic is not over.

Furthermore, Pakistan's tally of coronavirus cases crossed 600,000 as infections climbed again. According to data from the country's Health Ministry, 1,353 new cases were registered in the last 24 hours, taking the caseload to 635K, with 61 more fatalities, the death toll also rose to 13,717.

Currently the third wave of Covid-19 is gripping Pakistan’s largest province, Punjab and the northern parts of the country. Seeing the situation, Pakistan health and administration authorities have imposed partial lockdown in affected areas, of which much resistance have been acknowledge by the businesses and ignorance by the public. Still people can be seen without mask, shaking hands, and violating the norm of social distancing also the standard SOP’s.

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