THERE is once again alarming rise in Covid-19 cases across the country.
The cases stayed over 1500 for the fifth consecutive day after 1980 new cases were reported on Sunday morning.
The presence of different variants including Delta, Beta and Alpha warrant that necessary measures are put in place to avoid the situation getting out of control as our health infrastructure is not yet prepared and equipped to deal with rising cases.
Extraordinary situation warrants extraordinary decisions. Taking the lead, Punjab government has rightly renewed health guidelines and decided to set-up special counters at places frequented by people such as wedding halls, cinemas and hotels to check Covid-19 vaccination certificates of visitors. This indeed will compel people, who still are reluctant, to get vaccinated.
The provincial government has also decided to establish a control room to monitor the implementation of SOPs at public places.
We will suggest that from the platform of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), these guidelines should also be recommended to other federating units.
So far country has fared better in coping with the virus but we cannot be complacent at all as doing so will amount to inviting a disaster.
Already, our students have suffered a lot because of prolonged closure of educational institutions over the last one year.
If cases shoot up again sharply, government will have no option but to again opt for closure of institutions. This will be really disastrous for a country where millions of children are already out of school.
Hence, public at large needs to demonstrate maturity and observe health guidelines so that education and economic activities remain undisturbed.
It is also for the government to ensure availability of sufficient vaccine so that eligible population could be vaccinated in minimum possible time.
Only through vaccination, we can provide safety to population and bring normalcy in the country. This message should also be spread through mass awareness campaign.
We must also enhance our domestic production of vaccine in order to reduce reliance on imported one.
