Government officials, lawmakers seek 'divine intervention' against coronavirus

With the deadly pandemic coronavirus unleashing devastation across the globe, the lawmakers and senior government functionaries on Tuesday collectively prayed seeking the "divine intervention of Almighty Allah to stop the spread of coronavirus and grant speedy recovery to the infected people." In a ceremony held at Aiwan-e-Sadar (Presidency), the participants held the collective prayer. Chairman Senate and Acting President of Pakistan Sadiq Sanjrani, Federal Minister for Religious Affairs, Noorul Haq Qadri, Leader of the House in Senate Shibli Faraz and senators including Javed Abbasi, Sajjad Hussain Turi, Manzoor Kakar, Rubina Khalid, Sitara Ayaz, Rukhsana Zuberi, and Aurangzeb Khan attended the event.

Speaking on the occasion, Sanjrani advised the, "Ulema (religious scholars) and media to play their role in educating the people about the preventive measures against the disease."

It merits mentioning here that Sanjrani, earlier on Monday, had appealed to the nation to collectively pray on Tuesday at 10:30am "seeking mercy of Almighty Allah against coronavirus," in a video message.

In Pakistan, the coronavirus cases tally surpassed 236 by Tuesday evening. The first coronavirus case was reported in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019. On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus a pandemic. So far, up to 175 countries of the world have been affected by this deadly virus.

According to reports, more than 180,000 people infected worldwide by coronavirus with over 7,000 dead, and over 79,000 recovered (by Tuesday evening). The virus has originated from China but, lately, the focus of this virus' devastating impact has shifted from China to Europe, and the WHO has named Europe as the new epicenter of coronavirus.

On Sunday, Pakistan proposed to establish a working group of respective national authorities for information and data exchange as well as coordination for responses in real-time between the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries and to "learn from and disseminate the experience of the SAARC observer states, particularly China that is effectively addressing the challenge and can share valuable insights."

These proposals were floated by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza at the SAARC member states' Video Conference on COVID-19.

On Friday, the federal government decided to shut its western borders with Iran and Afghanistan for two weeks, limit international operations only to three major airports, shut educational institutes for three weeks, and ban public gatherings. These decisions were taken in the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, and attended by military leadership, all provincial chief ministers, and relevant authorities. The NSC also decided to set up the National Coordination Committee on Coronavirus under the chairmanship of special assistant to the PM on health as its convener.

Last Saturday, the National Coordination Committee on Coronavirus held its first meeting and reviewed the measures to ensure implementation on the National Action Plan (NAP) to prevent spread of COVID-19.