–Punjab health minister says cabinet committee to decide about lockdown
–Global health body says Pakistan meets no pre-requisites for easing restrictions
LAHORE: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday urged the Punjab government to enforce a strict two-week lockdown in the province to stem the spread of coronavirus.
In a letter to the provincial government, the WHO strongly recommended that the government should adopt the “two weeks off and two weeks on” strategy as it offers the smallest curve. It also recommended strengthening of all public health measures such as quarantine, isolation, physical distancing and contact tracing.
The WHO lauded the provincial government’s efforts in response to the pandemic. “Government intervention on April 12 detailing social distancing measures, including restrictions, closure of schools and businesses, international travel restrictions and geographical area restrictions were instituted with the aim of limiting the spread of the disease,” the letter said.
According to WHO recommendations, any government that wishes to lift lockdown restrictions must meet a set of conditions. The letter noted that so far, Pakistan has not met any of the conditions which include:
- Disease transmission is under control
- Health systems can “detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact”
- Hot spot risks are minimised in vulnerable places
- Schools, workplaces and other essential places should have preventive measures
- The risk of importing new cases can be managed
- Communities are fully educated, engaged and empowered to live under a new normal
“The positivity rate is high, the surveillance system is weak, there is limited capacity to provide for critical patients and the population is not ready to adapt to change in behaviour,” the letter stated, adding that Pakistan’s reproductive number, which is an estimate for the number of individuals infected by each carrier, is also greater than 1.
The WHO recommended that strategic decisions should be taken to either tighten or loosen public health measures. “These difficult decisions will require the need to balance the response directly to Covid-19 which includes intermittent lockdowns of targeted areas,” it added.
The organisation said that during the lockdown, the country was reporting 1,000 cases per day, however, this number increased after the federal government eased the lockdown in the country. “SOPs [standard operating procedures] need to be strictly enforced to stem the spread of the virus,” the letter said.
Cases increasing beyond 100,000 in Pakistan are concerning, the WHO added.
Punjab Health Minister Yasmin Rashid said that the provincial government would impose a lockdown in areas with higher number of coronavirus cases to stem the spread of the disease.
While talking to the media, the provincial health minister said that the government had warned earlier that the number of cases would rise. She said that the final decision regarding the lockdown would be taken by the cabinet committee.
“Lahore has more than 19,000 coronavirus cases,” said the Punjab health minister, adding when the lockdown was eased “people thought that the coronavirus has left”.
Dr Yasmin said that the cases are rising due to the violation of SOPs, even though people were fined for flouting the rules. Punjab has every kind of data, she said.
She said that in Punjab, the highest number of tests was done and several doctors, who were even not treating the virus patients, got infected. She added that the province has a great number of testing kits.
“There are reports that Actemra injection is being stocked to be sold in black,” said the minister, adding in the same vein the medicine is not life-saving.
