PAKISTAN MULLING COMPLETE LOCKDOWN DUE TO HIGH POSITIVITY RATE

Amid the sudden rise in coronavirus cases in Pakistan, the federal government has warned they will be forced to impose a complete lockdown in the country if the current positivity rate of COVID-19 cases continues in the coming week.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Pakistan’s Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that there would be serious consequences for the health care system of the country if the present 11 per cent ratio of detection of coronavirus cases persisted just for one or one-and-half-week more, Gulf News reported. “Our government has been doing its best since last one year to avoid the situation of complete lockdown in the country as such a decision creates serious repercussions for our daily wage earners and traders,” Chaudhry said.

Noting that the government has refrained from imposing lockdown, the minister said that they have tried to impose a system under which the economy doesn’t come to a halt.

“The Prime Minister Imran Khan has so far resisted the proposal to impose complete lockdown as he always tried to impose a system under which the economy doesn’t come to a halt but if in case the situation doesn’t come under control in one week then we will be compelled to think about the complete lockdown,” the information minister said.

Furthermore, Chaudhry requested the traders in the country to follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) against the spread of the virus.

This comes as the Pakistan government on Sunday issued a notification allowing the provinces and federal administration to take the Army’s help to enforce SOPs amid the rising coronavirus infections in the country.

According to the government notification, the provinces and federal territories except Sindh will avail the services of the Pakistan Army for implementation of COVID-19 SOPs “as per their need”, Dawn reported.

Pakistan’s COVID-19 positivity ratio jumped to over 10 per cent on Sunday, a day after the country reported the highest number of deaths due to coronavirus. As many as 4825 fresh infections were reported in the last 24 hours, while 70 people succumbed to the virus in the same period, Geo News reported.