Covid panic

There appears to be some sense of panic over the coronavirus pandemic raging through Pakistan. There are now clear indications that fear is spreading as news of deaths widens around the country. Since it began early last year, Pakistan has suffered 721,000 infections and over 15,000 deaths as a result of the virus. To add to the problems, the country’s vaccination programme has been moving at a slow speed. Meanwhile, while Pakistan is one of the very few countries in the world that has allowed the private imported vaccines, there are simply not enough to go around as panicked people rush to receive what supply exists.

And the death toll continues to climb. Hospitals in Punjab report that they have very little capacity left to place people who need oxygen on ventilators and almost no beds on which to take in new patients. The situation is becoming desperate. There are fears that the ability of hospitals to cope with the epidemic may soon run out. The Punjab health minister has warned that this could happen and has suggested a total lockdown. While ‘smart’ lockdowns have been imposed in some cities, and some localities in various cities, Pakistan has so far not gone once again into the complete lockdown that some health experts warn may be the only way to stop the pandemic from spreading further.

The situation is somewhat nightmarish. The vaccine supply that had been hoped for has not quite come in, with the donations Pakistan had decided to rely on somewhat slow in reaching the country, and private companies not able to keep up with the demand. In some good news, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureishi has said that the country has been promised 15 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine from the WHO’s Covax scheme by May. As the death toll continues to rise, we have also seen the presence of the UK variant of the virus, which is quickly becoming dominant, claiming the lives of younger people. But even now, some scepticism still exists about the pandemic. SOPs are being enforced more strictly by the government, at least in major cities, but are still not observed by a majority in the country. As Ramazan starts, the fears are that the ‘third wave’ could prove to be deadlier than was previously expected. In this situation, we hope the government has a plan to keep the people safe.