Pakistan is preparing to loosen coronavirus lockdown restrictions as the number of infections and deaths are well below previous projections, officials said yesterday.
The South Asian nation, which has registered more than 15,000 cases of Covid-19, including 335 deaths, has already granted exemptions to dozens of sectors to open up over the last few days.
The coronavirus causes the highly-contagious Covid-19 respiratory disease.
“The mortality numbers are nowhere near the same as we see in other countries,” Planning Minister Asad Umar, who oversees the response to the virus, told journalists.
He said that infections and deaths in Pakistan were 30-35% lower than projections and, if things remained this way, the country could open up further in coming days.
Health experts say that Pakistan’s low numbers are due to limited testing (see accompanying report).
Currently Pakistan, a country of more than 207mn people, conducts about 8,000 tests a day.
On Tuesday, the country registered 800 positive cases and 26 deaths – the highest number of deaths in a single day.
Experts and officials say infections will peak in mid-May.
Umar said that despite the rising numbers, the disease was under control, but the economic cost had been “tremendous” as revenues and exports had been hit during a month-long lockdown.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that Pakistan’s economy will contract 1.5% this financial year.
Pakistan a few days ago launched a new “Test, Trace and Quarantine” system, which officials say will allow it to steadily open up commercial and industrial activities over the next few weeks without risking further infections.
Officials admitted there remained areas of concern – particularly the high incidence of infections among health workers.
Dr Zafar Mirza, the top health official, said that at least 480 health workers, including doctors, had been infected.
He added that because of the lockdown and the focus on the coronavirus, a number of other health programmes, such an anti-polio campaign, had been affected.
Pakistan has also removed restrictions on congregations at mosques for the holy month of Ramadan, leading doctors to raise the alarm on the risk of mass infections.
Meanwhile, a top police official has said that action was taken against almost14,000 people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) for violating the lockdown imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic over the past month.
KP Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Sanaullah Abbasi said that the authorities took action against 13,978 people, of which 4,047 were in Peshawar, 1,993 in Mardan, and 1,557 in Swat.
In addition, 7,352 cases were registered over the same time period for violating lockdown restrictions.
The official further said that social distancing is being practised in mosques across the province.
Last week, the provincial government made it obligatory for people to wear masks in public places, KP Health and Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra had said at a news conference.
Jhagra had said that it is possible that people would have to live with the coronavirus for two to three years.
“Wear a mask not just to protect yourself, but to protect others. Even a cloth mask will do,” he had noted.
Planning Minister Asad Umar, along with health officials, address a briefing at the National Command and Control Centre in Islamabad on the spread of the coronavirus disease.
