Ramazan and raging virus

Just about the start of the holy month of Ramazan, Pakistan has witnessed its deadliest coronavirus days since the June 2020 peak: as many as 135 coronavirus deaths have been recorded across the country over the last 24 hours. A day before that, the country had reported 118 deaths from the lethal infection. According to NCOC, 153 and 148 deaths had been reported respectively on June 20 and 21 last year – the highest Covid-19 death toll in the country so far.

Also, at least 4,503 new cases were detected – slightly less than the past few days when the number of cases exceed 5,000, but well above the dip between late February and mid-March when the infected patients were in the vicinity of one thousand. The country is also at risk of running out of ventilators and even oxygen supply in several areas if the number of active infections continues to increase. The number has quadrupled in the last month. Punjab has been the worst suffer in the entire country where the UK strain of the virus has spread thick and fast, and daily Covid-positive cases in cities like Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Rawalpindi, Multan, etc have risen to record levels.

The trend is worrying, as the holy month of fasting has always been marked by people congregating for various reasons. While some are entirely avoidable, such as large sehri and iftar gatherings, others such as shopping for food and other supplies in the afternoon and evening and Taraweeh prayers are less so. The federal government did recently announce a 20-point list of precautions meant to be observed in mosques and imambargahs. However, while the federation and all four provinces are in agreement over the SOPs, it remains to be seen whether mosque administrators and regular citizens willingly follow them, or if the government will even be willing to take on violators, given the sensitivity of the issue. There were serious problems enforcing the SOPs last year, and it is anyone’s guess whether people will be more cautious or callous this time around.

Doctors have been quite blunt about their expectations, with senior Pakistan Medical Association members still urging the government to do more than reissue the plan from last year. Some have even gone as far as calling for closing mosques entirely and broader lockdowns. While that is unlikely to happen, their cause for concern is legitimate.

Meanwhile, vaccination prevalence is minuscule, and vaccine supplies remain scarce in both the public and private sector. A new outbreak, or rather a worsening of the current one, could be catastrophic. Several countries that have been able to vaccinate a good number of their citizens have made strong recommendations that only vaccinated people can go to mosques.

If the government had gotten ahead of the game and actually made an effort to vaccinate its entire population instead of leaving them at the mercy of the invisible hand of the market, we may have actually been able to leverage Ramazan to achieve full vaccination. What excuse would people have to avoid vaccination counters outside mosques?

Instead, we must put our faith in Pakistanis acting like law-abiding citizens.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2021.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.