THE overall number of Coronavirus cases in the country is rising but comparative low numbers in Punjab has prompted angry remarks from some leaders of the Sindh Government who believe the province has reduced the number of tests deliberately to portray an improvement in the situation. According to reports, the Punjab government reduced the tests carried out to detect the virus in suspected patients by about 40pc against its capacity of 5,000 tests each day. The official figures showed that the Punjab authorities were not conducting tests even according to the capacity required to assess actual incidence of the virus in the general public.
It is strange that the capacity is there and relevant officials also express determination to raise it to forty thousand per day but the capacity is not resulting into actual detection of infected people and there are also complaints that many people with Corona-like symptoms are told to go back home by hospitals without proper tests. The controversy assumes importance in the backdrop of ongoing discussion whether or not the country should go for a stricter lockdown and whether small lockdown would work. There are conflicting approaches to the issue of tests and lockdown with Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar announcing that the Government was preparing to further ease Coronavirus lockdown restrictions as the number of infections and deaths were 30-35% lower than previous projections. He also claimed that the mortality numbers were also nowhere near the same as we see in other countries. His comments came as Pakistan on Wednesday reported eight more deaths from novel coronavirus as number of cases across the country reached 15,738 and 346 persons lost their lives.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that for the first time 404 new cases of coronavirus positive have been diagnosed and eight patients died leaving the death toll in three digits, 100. He said the new cases emerged when 3729 tests were conducted in the province, confirming widely-held belief that the number of infections would rise with increase in tests. Under these circumstances, one fails to understand why Punjab is not utilizing its full testing capacity putting lives of the people at risk. Punjab Government ought to explain the position as the issue sends a wrong message during peak of the pandemic. The wrong impression of improvement in the situation is also to be blamed for lack of seriousness on the part of the general public to observe safety guidelines issues by health experts and the government. Though ban on public transport continues but there is increased mobility of people and more people are seen on roads, streets and bazaars where many shops have formally opened while others carry out business on mutual convenience basis. Reports also speak of violation of code of conduct or SOPs by mosques where the number of worshippers has increased during the holy month of Ramazan. The situation demands that the Centre and the provinces should sit together, review the entire situation in a threadbare manner and come out with a unified policy and strategy.
The testing capacity should actually be increased along with reliance on the newly evolved mechanism of tracing, tracking and identification of infected people with the help of ISI. At the same time, Federal and Provincial Governments should also revise their policies, plans and programmes while keeping in mind the universally prevalent perception that the virus is going to stay for a longer duration. It is understood that no country of the world especially the poor ones like Pakistan can afford indefinite closure of offices, businesses and educational institutions. Our failure to evolve such mechanisms is evident from the fact that even we have not been able to convene sessions of the National Assembly and the Senate when the elected institutions should have been in the lead role during the current situation. Other countries of the world are also in the process of evolving procedures for return to normalcy and best practices can be replicated here.
