EDITORIAL: Once again Pakistan feels confident enough to defy the regional coronavirus trend. While countries are plunging ever deeper into the crisis and imposing harsh restrictions, led by India of course, Pakistan has again decided to take the first step in reopening after the partial lockdown forced by the third wave of the virus. The National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) decided the other day that schools should be reopened in districts with less than five percent positivity ratio and outdoor dining and marriage ceremonies with 150 people at the most, etc., should also resume in a phased and controlled manner. However, it has also been made very clear that ‘shrines, cinemas, indoor dining, indoor gyms, amusement parks, contact sports, festivals, cultural and other events and indoor/outdoor gatherings’ will remain banned until further notice.
The last couple of months have been something of a scare with the number of fresh infections as well as daily deaths registering a sharp rise after almost a year. Pakistan was able to deal with the first wave better than almost all other countries in the world and barely felt the second wave even as it literally shut down much of Europe and parts of the United States (US). Yet the third wave has been a very different story. Countries like Pakistan have to handle uncomfortable situations like rising cases very differently than countries like the US or some in the EU (European Union). For one thing, we just do not have the kind of resources that they do to meet such situations. And for another, our medical infrastructure takes a lot less time to be completely overwhelmed in such circumstances so the government has to do whatever it needs to do in a very short window of time.
That is why some people are surprised by some of the steps taken by the NCOC. Why, for example, insist on reopening schools now, when the summer vacation is so close? They made a similar mistake of sending children back to schools just when the spring break was around the corner; and the virus hasn’t slowed its spread since then. Yet Pakistan’s economy, too, is not nearly as strong as some other countries’ that can afford to hunker down for longer and wait for the storm to pass. That explains the government’s haste in getting off the mark as soon as a certain permissible percentage of the positivity ratio was achieved. So, all things considered, this is something that the government more or less had to do. And, as such, its efforts in bringing down the number of new cases and deaths, to whatever little extent possible, must also be appreciated.
Going forward, though, a few things will need to be taken very good care of. First and foremost is ensuring somehow that people that go out in the open again will not violate safety rules for no reason at all. There’s only so much governments of even the most advanced countries can do to police all the people all the time, even when it is for their own benefit, but they can go the extra mile to instill in people the undeniable necessity of observing extreme caution. It will also be very important to speed up the vaccination drive. That might present some unforeseen problems. There’s the obvious vaccine hesitancy that needs to be overcome, of course, but there’s also the fact that a lot of people especially from rural areas do not possess national identity cards (NICs). Therefore, it would be a good idea to install Nadra booths at vaccination centres to cater to the lot that turns up without their cards.
The apparent risk/reward ratio of this initiative might not be ideal, but it seems good enough to take the plunge at a time when the eventual cost of inaction, other things remaining the same, will also surely be phenomenal. The best the government can do now is ensure strict monitoring while keeping an eye on the positivity ratio and a hand on the plug; ready to pull it in case the reading disappoints. But the biggest difference will be made by the people on the streets. If they are smart enough to keep themselves and others safe, this initiative will succeed, otherwise it will fail and the intention and compulsions behind it will cease to matter.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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