-Asad Umar says ignoring SOPs implementation could lead to devastating situation
-By end of June pandemic might surpass 300,000 mark
-Government to stick to smart lockdown instead of complete lockdown strategy as confirmed cases jump over 142,000 with nearly 52,000 recoveries
By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has said if violation of standard operating procedures (SOPs), issued by the government to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and strict action was not taken against violators, coronavirus cases could surge to 1.2 million by the end of July.
In a media briefing on Sunday after chairing a meeting of the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) on COVID-19, he said, “By the middle of June, we have around 150,000 cases and if such situation prevails and no change is made then according to the experts, the number can increase by two folds to 300,000 by the end of current month and further surge to around one million to 1.2 million by end of next month.”
Asad Umar said that this was of course a matter of worry but the good thing was that we have the capability to avoid such situation by taking administrative actions.
He said the administrative measures were already being taken against the violators of SOPs, however, the NCOC had decided to take stricter action against such people. The government did not want to hurt the people, but it was its constitutional as well as moral responsibility to prevent them from spreading the disease, he added.
The Minister Planning and Development said the capacity of health system was also being improved. The NCOC had taken the decision to increase the COVID-19 testing capacity from current 40,000-50,000 daily to around 150,000 tests within four to six weeks, meaning that around 100,000 people would be tested on daily basis by mid-July.
About the availability of beds with oxygen for the coronavirus patients, Umar said at present around 2,000 patients were on oxygen beds across the country. Keeping in view the growing numbers of patients, the Federal Government would provide 1000 more beds by the end of current month and 1,000 beds next month. “We will provide 500 beds each to the Sindh and Punjab provinces, 450 to Islamabad, 400 bed to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 200 bed to Balochistan, 60 to Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and 40 to Gilgit Baltistan.”
Asad Umar said according to the experts, wearing masks was the most effective way to control the pandemic as it could even help decrease the spread rate by 50 percent. He said social distancing was the second most important requirement the people should follow. It had repeatedly been advised that the people should avoid going out of home unnecessarily, and if it were unavoidable, then they should observe social distancing whether they were in a market, at an office or anywhere else. The minister said that the government wanted to save the majority of people of from the disease, warning that more strict actions would be taken against those who did not follow the SOPs, particularly shops and even markets would be locked in such cases.
He said in Islamabad, the government had sealed some areas and similar actions would also be taken in Lahore and other cities of Punjab. Asad Umar said according to the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the government was also concerned about the economic situation of common man. Pakistan managed to do something for the poor due to timely actions by the prime minister, however, the situation in other countries like India was the worst. India imposed a strict lockdown on a short notice causing the worst situation where people were dying of hunger and pandemic which continued spreading.
Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Sunday issued a stark warning regarding the current trajectory of the spread of Covid-19 in the country, saying that the confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus could double by the end of this month and reach 1 million to 1.2m by the end of July.
He shared these projections during a press conference in Islamabad. “We’re in mid-June and our [confirmed] cases have reached approximately 150,000. It saddens me to say that based on our current trajectory [of spread], experts have projected that our cases could double by the end of June,” he said, adding that Pakistan’s confirmed Covid-19 case tally could even reach 1m to 1.2m by end July.
Umar noted, however, that these projections were neither predictions nor a certainty. He said that the “good news” is that the potential spike in confirmed cases was avoidable, provided the government and the people work together to stop it. Urging people to “get serious”, Umar highlighted the importance of wearing face masks and practising social distancing to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“Research [around the world] has indicated that wearing masks is a verified way of curbing the spread of Covid-19 by up to 50 per cent,” he said, adding that the National Command and Operation Centre [NCOC] had recommended that face masks be worn by everyone in public places. “We are seeing many people wearing masks but sadly we’ve seen many more not wearing one. If you want to defend yourself and your loved ones, please wear masks. It’s as simple as that,” he added. Umar pointed out that the government had issued guidelines regarding social distancing requirements that people should follow. “This [practising social distancing] is the simplest way to ensure that businesses remain open and the wheel of the economy keeps turning.”
He warned that if people failed to follow preventive guidelines issued by the government, it would result in “people losing their livelihoods”.
“We’re now at the stage where we will start taking administrative action against those who aren’t wearing masks or maintaining social distancing,” he added.
Endorsing Prime Minister Imran’s decision to impose “smart lockdowns” in virus hotspots around the country as opposed to a complete lockdown, Umar said that “the world is now beginning to realise that imposing a complete lockdown will cause the economy to crumble”.
“We have to enforce smart lockdowns in hotspots because this way we can stop the spread in areas that are witnessing outbreaks and at the same time protect jobs and livelihoods by not imposing complete lockdowns,” he said. The prime minister had said yesterday that a strategy of “smart lockdowns” will be implemented, whereby strict adherence to standard operation procedures (SOPs) will be ensured to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. “After analysing with my Punjab team, [we’ve decided that] we will not impose a lockdown but will impose selective lockdowns trace and seal hotspots,” he had said, adding that the country’s administration and police were not in a position to take “such a huge burden of a complete lockdown”. Umar said that the government aims to conduct 100,000 Covid-19 tests by the end of July.
“We were only testing 500 people at the start [of the pandemic]. Now we are able to conduct 30,000 tests per day and the NCOC has decided to take our [testing] capacity to more than 100,000 tests per day by the end of July,” he said, adding that the government is constantly increasing its testing capacity. He urged people to “show discipline” and follow preventive measures. “If our actions can cause spikes, our actions can also reduce the spread of the virus,” he concluded.
A large number of prisoners infected with coronavirus has recovered at Karachi Central Jail. Senior superintendent of the Karachi Central Jail, Hassan Sahito, confirmed that 894 prisoners and 11 staffers of the Karachi Central Jail were infected with the coronavirus. He added that 274 inmates have recovered from the virus so far.
The police officer detailed that 120 prisoners were declared critical out of which 90 inmates recovered their health. “We are conducting more tests of other prisoners while many inmates managed to defeat COVID-19 due to best arrangements made by the jail administration.”
After their health recovery from the virus, the prisoners have reportedly celebrated at the central prison. It is noteworthy to mention here that more than 200 prisoners and nine officials had been detected with COVID-19 on May 19 which led the Sindh Prisons’ department to issue directives for the special arrangements for the protection of all prisoners. Following the orders, the jail superintendent had made arrangements for coronavirus detection tests and social distancing measures.
Overall 2,287 fresh cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the Sindh province during past 24 hours after 11,197 tests were performed during the said period, ARY NEWS reported quoting Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah.
While divulging details of daily coronavirus tally, the chief minister said that the virus claimed 15 more lives in the province during past 24 hours, raising the overall death toll to 831. “As many as 53,805 cases of the COVID-19 have been reported in the province so far after the provincial health authorities performed 298,332 tests,” he said.
“We have 27,368 active patients of the virus in the province as nearly half of them, that is 25,606 have so far recovered from it,” Murad Ali Shah said adding that 1219 patients have recovered from COVID-19 during past 24-hours. He said that Karachi, which remains most affected from the pandemic, has reported 1499 cases today. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Pakistan has jumped to 139,230 after detection of record 6,825 new infections in past 24 hours on Sunday.
According to the latest data released by the National Command and Operation Center, the death toll from COVID-19 in the country has reached 2,632 with 81 more virus-related deaths reported in the last 24 hours.
According to NCOC, 51,518 cases have been detected in Sindh, 52,601 in Punjab, 17,450 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 8,028 in Balochistan, 7,934 in Islamabad, 604 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 1095 in Gilgit Baltistan. A total of 6,825 new cases were detected when 29,546 new tests were conducted during this period. The number of people defeating the deadly virus has reached 51,735.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 427,495 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December. At least 7,711,490 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 3,458,300 are now considered recovered with 4,523 deaths and 136,525 cases logged over the past 24 hours. Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.
The United States is the worst-hit country with 115,059 deaths from 2,061,315 cases. At least 547,386 people have been declared recovered. After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 41,828 deaths from 828,810 infections, Britain with 41,662 deaths from 294,375 cases, Italy with 34,301 deaths from 236,651 cases, and France with 29,398 deaths from 193,616 cases. Per 100,000 population, Belgium has the highest fatality rate with 83 deaths ahead of the United Kingdom (61), Spain (58), Italy (57) and Sweden (48).
