THE National Coordination Committee (NCC) has once again extended the lockdown to May 9 but confusion persists as to the nature of the restrictions and the overall approach of the Government to handle the situation arising out of fast spread of the Coronavirus. After chairing its meeting on Friday, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced a “track and trace system” for Coronavirus cases which will be introduced throughout the country with the help of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The system will help in identifying areas where there were numerous Coronavirus cases.
The decision of the NCC to extend the partial lockdown till May 9 and at the same time allowing the provinces to take decision as necessary is reflective of lack of national consensus on how best to tackle the challenge. Previously, the NCC had allowed some businesses and sectors to resume their activities but provinces were hesitant to implement the measure in its true form because of ground realities as virus infections are continuously increasing in all the provinces. It was because of the emerging picture that the Sindh Government maintained restrictions on congregational prayers during the holy month of Ramazan. There are also apprehensions that relaxations allowed for Ramazan in other provinces could result into dramatic increase in the number of patients. The confused signals from the Government have forced the doctors’ community to raise alarm bells and on Friday a group of female doctors in Karachi warned people against coming out unnecessarily from their homes during the Coronavirus pandemic, saying that the pressure on doctors would “decrease” if people listened and stayed home. They pointed out that the Sindh Chief Minister has persistently been advising people to stay indoors but they are not listening despite the fact that one infected person could infect scores of others in a short span of time. The Provincial Doctors Association in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has also strongly recommended complete lockdown and separate hospitals at divisional level for the infected people to contain spread of the virus and manage active patients effectively. A sort of warning has also come from Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar who has termed the next 15 days as crucial in the battle against the Coronavirus pandemic requiring extreme care to prevent the disease from spreading any further. With Government not focused on enforcement mechanism, it is quite evident that now it depends on the behaviour of the citizens which would determine the course of the virus in coming days, weeks and months.
Only time will tell whether or not the strategy of ‘smart lockdown’ works or not but on the face of it the plan seems to be passive and not aggressive. This is because it envisages selected lockdown of the affected areas once reports are received through intelligence network about presence of patients and their contacts in a particular area whereas we need to take precautionary measures at national level as, in a complicated scenario, no one knows who is carrying the virus in which part of the country. Precautions should be taken at least during the period which is being considered as possible peak so as to minimize the risks. The Federal and Provincial Governments should, however, have brainstorming sessions to evolve necessary SOPs for resumption of normal life in a gradual manner if the virus refuses to go for a long time. The KP Government has done well to make it mandatory for all citizens to wear masks to help prevent spread of the virus from one person to another and this should be emulated by other provinces as well, of course, along with many other dos and don’ts. There should be aggressive awareness campaign to prepare people for an entirely new way of life. Sindh has also shown the way by evolving workable SOPs for some businesses and according to the details, traders will be allowed to open shops from Monday to Thursday from 9-3pm, but for e-commerce and home delivery services only. It was also decided that grocery shops will continue to follow the lockdown timings, i.e. 8am-5pm. No country including Pakistan can afford indefinite closure of factories, offices and educational institutions and therefore, relevant institutions and authorities should devise plans for their working with necessary precautions.
