The situation in Pakistan is chaotic and nowhere is this being said in the media
KARACHI: Amid this pandemic the real heroes are doctors, paramedics and law enforcers who are risking their lives to contain the spread of coronavirus. People keep showering applauds on those ministers and officers having zero concern with this outbreak. Those ministers haven’t bothered to monitor the isolation centres established in hospital and are instead busy putting up posts on social media about prevention techniques. The truth is that in Pakistan, it is nearly impossible to tell how much the virus has spread. Pakistan has a huge poor and rural population that are not aware about what the disease is. The symptoms are mostly flu-like, therefore these people can confuse it with something else. Furthermore, not everyone is being tested for the virus. Not everyone has access to the hospital and not everyone has the money to get tested.
Moreover, the quality of our diagnostic centres and hospitals are also questionable. The minimum cost for testing is around Rs8,000 at private hospitals. Only the rich are able to book testing kits for themselves because only a limited amount is available. The poor cannot afford basic healthcare let alone get themselves tested on their own for the deadly virus. We are also relying on testing kits being imported from China, and reports say there is a discrepancy in results. The WHO had already put a ban on China for supplying bad quality markers used for the polio vaccine campaign, so faulty kits by China during a crisis should have been expected.
The situation in Pakistan is chaotic and nowhere is this being said in the media. We don’t know how many people have the virus and what is the extent of the spread. Only those that are tested are put on the record. So, it is important to maintain social distancing, as the next two weeks will be crucial. The pattern of the spread shows that the virus reaches its maximum spread before it deteriorates. The maximum has not been reached yet in Pakistan and it could affect large numbers. Stay safe and stay wise.
Ashfaq Siyal
Published in The Express Tribune, April 2nd, 2020.
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