By Muhammad Luqman
Pakistan has extended the nationwide lockdown till May 9 as a part of its efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus epidemic that has sofar infected over 11500 people and killed 237 in this part of the world.
” The decision to extend the lockdown for another two weeks was taken at a meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) meeting,” Federal Minister Asad Umar told a news conference in the capital , Islamabad on Friday.
Pakistan’s medics community has already expressed alarm at the prime minister’s decision to allow mosques to hold community prayers during the month of Ramadan.
Federal Minister Asad Umer said that the NCOC was about to start the implementation of the trace and track system from Saturday “Consultations were held with chief secretaries and then health ministers at the NCOC. The prime minister has given approval for the system,” he said.
He said that the apex body of the NCOC will oversee the trace and track system but the provincial governments, information technology institutions, civil and military organisations will be involved in the process as well.
“This is a complete national response formed by the government,” he said, though adding that the provincial governments will be responsible mainly for the implementation of the system.
NCC on #coronavirus decides to extend prevailing partial #lockdown in country till 9th May#Covid_19 #PakistanFightsCorona #TogetherWeCan #StayHome https://t.co/7rKApG7HAE
— Radio Pakistan (@RadioPakistan) April 24, 2020
He announced that throughout the month of Ramazan, loadshedding will not take place during Sehar and Iftar hours.
The minister said that if people practiced the prescribed safety precautions during the holy month, then it would allow business and other activities to inch towards normalcy.
“However, God forbid, if we demonstrate irresponsibility, then we may have to impose more restrictions after Eid,” he said.
He said that generally, Pakistanis had made a lot of changes to their social life during the past month ever since the lockdown was imposed. “We are trying to predict what this infection’s spread will be through consultations will data scientists and experts,” he said.
Pakistan’s most of the parts have been under lockdown since third week of March with an objective to keep the people remain at homes so that they remain safe from the deadly pandemic of COVID-19.
The novel coronavirus emerged in the central China city of Wuhan towards the end of last year and proliferated to almost the whole world within a couple of months. It’s not the virulence or fatality, but the infectivity of the new virus – also known as SARS-CoV-2 – that has set off a global frenzy.
The Covid-19 respiratory illness caused by this mysterious contagion has so far infected more than 2.7 million people in 202 countries and territories of the world – more than 190,000 of them have died.
