Covid-19 in retrospect

T he WHO has recently revealed that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused the death of nearly 15 million people around the world. This is almost three times greater than the 5.4 million deaths that have been officially reported. This is because the measure used by WHO doesn’t just include deaths occurred directly from the virus but it also considers deaths caused by its ‘knock-on effects’, such as lack of access to healthcare facilities and poor record-keeping.

By doing this, the numbers become all the more significant as they not only show the totality of the damage in the aftermath of this tragic pandemic but it also indicates that a significant number of people lost their lives because states failed to protect their citizens. Decades of corruption, mismanagement and negligence have weakened economies and healthcare sectors around the world. The pandemic didn’t just affect these core institutions but it also exposed its vulnerabilities that had been long hidden. Most affected — almost 53% — were lower-middle income countries whose healthcare sectors struggled to cope as the multiple Covid-19 waves hit. The same was seen in Pakistan where the healthcare structure was on the verge of collapse because of the enormous burden. Fortunately, sanity prevailed and officials handled it with prudence, even though divine help might have also played its part. Now that the pandemic has started to ebb, at least in most countries around the world, this is the perfect opportunity for Pakistan to look back at the rubble left behind with the intention of creating durable and resilient structures having the ability to withstand such crises in the future.

This, of course, cannot happen without holding policymakers and relevant stakeholders accountable. Dr Samira Asma from the WHO’s data department believes, “If we don’t count the dead, we will miss the opportunity to be better prepared for the next time.” The government must work towards formulating a damage report in order to identify vulnerabilities in our systems and most affected areas. This will help better prepare us for future emergencies.