The coronavirus spectre

Coronavirus has taken everybody by surprise. Those who thought they are too far from its epicenter in China to be infected are now in the midst of coronavirus storm, which retains its unpredictability as to how it would play out in weeks and months to come. As soon as Yahya Jafri, the first Pakistani recovered from coronavirus disease and went home the concerned quarters thought the game is over. But it did not. On Friday, the National Security Committee (NSC) was told that the number of those who have been tested positive has risen to 28. Hopefully, the decisions made and steps taken by the NSC would help sharpen public focus on this apocalyptic risk. This requires an informed public mindset, nurtured by national mass media.

Among the decisions made by the NSC and to be implemented by the National Coordination Committee comprising civil and military representatives, as some will deny entry of virus-ridden travellers from abroad the others aim at securing an infection-resistant polity. Even when there is a debate about its origin, the impression persists that China is the birthplace of coronavirus. But now the disease has spread to over 100 countries, including Pakistan, infecting more than 145,000 people and killing more than 5,400. Keeping that in mind, the NSC ordered closure of country's borders with neighbouring Iran and Afghanistan for a fortnight. It also decided that foreign flights would be allowed only at airports of Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore. That done then efficient screening of travellers at the entry points is the real challenge. Internally, a variety of dos and don'ts has been put in place. All educational institutions are shut; there is complete ban on major public gatherings of all kinds; and the remaining matches of PSL are to be held in empty stadiums. Cinema houses and wedding halls too would remain closed. The 23 March military parade too will not take place. Given the mammoth size of this shutdown the government may fall short of its managerial capacity. The situation, therefore, underscores the need for preparing a concerted plan to secure public support by educating the masses.

More importantly, the government is also required to devise a long-term strategy to fight the coronavirus demon, particularly on two fronts - economy and food security. The free-fall of stock exchange over the last week does paint a dropping trajectory on all other economic and financial fronts, requiring urgent remedial inputs by relevant quarters. However, the area of far more serious concern is food security especially when prices of essential food items have already registered an upward trend. It is only natural that in times of crises, a kind of panic grips the common folks who rush to the grocery shops to collect more than usual stocks of food stuff. Given the government's failure to catch the culprits responsible for the recent wheat and sugar shortages, the Ministry for National Food Security to pull up its socks without any further loss of time. Nothing can turn the tables on a sitting government as forcefully as the shortage of essential items.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has expressed his frustration over the way several countries have been dealing with the coronavirus challenge so far, saying they're deeply concerned by the "alarming levels of inaction". It is true that some have offered prompt response and secured early relief. It is also true that many others have wasted time and are paying heavily for their complacency. Hopefully, Pakistan escapes the latter generality even when it took the threat rather lightly. Then there was also a clear perceptional mismatch between the government of Sindh, which was the early victim of the deadly virus, and the rulers in the federal capital. There appears to be no clear answer to the question whether it Sindh Chief Minister Marad Ali Shah's alarm about this deadly virus or its graphic presentation in other countries by the international media which precipitated the delayed meeting of the NSC.