'Caring for the poor and vulnerable'

This is apropos a Business Recorder op-ed "Caring for the poor and vulnerable" carried by the newspaper yesterday. The writer, M Ziauddin, has extensively quoted from two different publications/ studies to explain his argument about what should the government of Pakistan to do to mitigate the sufferings being caused by the deadly spread of coronavirus in a country of over 200 million people. According to him, "The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), an official socio-economic think tank has voted for lockdown arguing that vacillation would not be able to contain the spread of the disease and its consequences on the economy would be unbearable in the long run. 'Containment is the key here!' asserts PIDE Bulletin on the subject (Slowdown or Shutdown Pakistan's Dilemma."
That the entire country is inching towards a formal lockdown is a fact that has found its best expression from alarming rise in the number of positive cases in various parts of the country. Lockdowns appear to be the only way to slow down the spread of coronavirus. China has shown to the world that its decision to lock down Wuhan, the epicenter of coronavirus, and the entire Hubei province has worked. India seems to have drawn a valuable lesson from China's experience as it has imposed a formal lockdown on its 1.4 billion people.