People associated with various fields of life in Punjab are still yearning for a return to routine life on the completion of a year when a lockdown was imposed across the country due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 disease. The year was marked by suffering and challenges for most of the people.
Unemployment and economic hardship stalked the lives of a large number of people due to the suspension of business and industrial activities to avert the spread of the virus.
However, the worst-hit were the health and education sectors as, according to an estimate, around 10 million children left schools while about 10,000 private schools were closed down due to the lockdown. Thousands of doctors and other health workers were also affected by the disease.
The lockdown was imposed on March 24 last year after coronavirus hit the country.
There were around 800 patients of coronavirus in the country when a partial lockdown was imposed in Punjab and other provinces. The army was also called in to assist the government in enforcing the restrictions.
According to the notification, schools, parks, markets, marriage halls, cinema halls, theatres were shut and all cultural activities halted.
In the second phase, inter-district transport services were also disallowed.
It was the first lockdown imposed in the country due to a disease.
Coronavirus has so far claimed 6,037 lives and afflicted 200,969 people in the province.
A year after the imposition of the first lockdown, schools and selected areas of several districts remain under restrictions.
Although the government also took steps to give relief to the people and relax the restrictions whenever possible, the sufferings of the business community, school owners and other stakeholders persisted.
After following a policy of imposing smart lockdown in high-risk areas, the government recently introduced new restrictions for businesses in view of the resurgence of Covid-19.
According to All Pakistan Private School Management Association’s president Kashif Adeeb Jawdani, the whole country suffered after the lockdown but the worst happened with the education sector, especially private institutions.
About 20,000 private schools were closed down across the country and a large number of people were left unemployed, he told The Express Tribune.
He said the education of about 50 million children was disrupted and child labour is currently at its peak in the country. Jawdani said the future of the country would be affected if the private education sector was not rehabilitated and the children who had dropped out were not brought back to schools.
“Around 18,000 nurses serving in hospitals of the province contracted the virus, while some also died. We were among the front line force and it was the nursing staffers who performed maximum duties during the past year,” said Nasira Parveen, spokesperson for the Young Nurses Association.
A leader of Young Doctors Association (YDA), Dr Shabbir Chaudhry, said around 1,000 doctors across Punjab were affected by Covid-19. As many as 100 doctors died due to the disease. According to an estimate, around 60 percent doctors treating coronavirus patients in some hospitals were infected by the virus.
Now, coronavirus is once again at its peak in Punjab. In the last 24 hours, at least 1,929 new cases of the disease were confirmed.
Dr. Muhammad Akram, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Health Sciences (UHS), said it would take up to three years to return to the normal situation in the sector.
“The situation one year ago in Punjab’s hospitals was very worrying. the government set up major quarantine centres in Lahore, D G Khan and Faisalabad. Now we have around 7,500 reserved beds for Covid-19 patients in the hospitals of Punjab,” said a senior official of the provincial health department.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 24th, 2021.
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