Rising wave

The full horrors of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the impact it can have on countries are now visible to us. Over the last four days, over 4,000 new cases of Covid-19 have been detected each day in the country. During the 24 hours between Monday and Tuesday, there have been 100 deaths, the majority of them in Punjab. The rate of positivity in the country is at over eight percent, deemed by experts to be extremely high, and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, it is far higher than this. To make matters worse, Pakistan is being affected chiefly by the British variant of the virus, which is known for being between 40 and 60 percent more transmissible than the initial variant of the ailment and also of causing more serious illness and therefore more death. It is also known to affect children. This is probably what accounts for the news coming in of more than 100 children under the age of 10 testing positive for Islamabad in one day.

We are in fact in a situation of emergency. Pakistan's vaccination rate is the slowest in South Asia, according to WHO figures. So far, we have been able to vaccinate barely 0.2 percent of our vast population. There are millions more who require the vaccine. How they are to be vaccinated is unclear since the government's policy on acquiring vaccines has been turbulent and changes regularly. Pakistan had initially said it had the funds to purchase the vaccine. However, purchases were not made in time and while China has donated a significant dose of the vaccine and another consignment is expected under the charitable Covax programme run by WHO, the reality is that the rate at which the country is proceeding now is far too slow. In addition, the initial policy of allowing private import of the vaccine has created yet more confusion. The company that imported doses of the Sputnik V and CanSino vaccine was prevented from selling it because it expressed dismay over the price set for sale by DRAP, the national regulator. The matter is now in court. The vaccines lie in cold storage. The government has again changed its position, and has – in what is a good step – now permitted provinces to go in for imports on their own. Sindh had been seeking this allowance for months but has been given permission only now.

It is difficult to understand how we intend to deal with the Covid crisis. We now have a situation where President Dr Arif Alvi and Defence Minister Pervez Khattak have both been hit by the virus. Public gatherings by government officials go against the image and optics that should be put out to people. Steps have begun in Punjab and other places to enforce SOPs such as mask-wearing. Weddings have also been cancelled, as have other gatherings. But will this be enough? We hope so, as we continue to watch in horror as the Corona graph rises from one day to the next.