How alarming it is that Covid-19 positivity rate in Punjab remained over 14 percent for the third consecutive day on Saturday.

The Covid-19 situation in Punjab in particular has perhaps forced the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) to announce that the government will have no option but to toughen the Covid-19 restrictions if the pandemic’s upward trend continues. One of the reasons behind the rising number of positive cases is government’s own somewhat ambivalent approach to the Covid-19 challenge. An infected prime minister of Pakistan, for example, by chairing a meeting, which was attended, among others, by some of his cabinet colleagues, has set a bad example for everyone. He could have hosted that meeting in a virtual environment and not face-to-face. He has certainly not acted in a way that shows others how to act.

Yasin Mirza (Islamabad)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021