Prospect of another lockdown

The fears that Dr Zafar Mirza, special assistant to prime minister on health, is now expressing had been weighing quite heavily on the minds of a few concerned Pakistanis ever since the government began relaxing the lockdown about two week ago. Now, since far too many people took the partial reopening – later complete reopening since the honourable Supreme Court itself pretty much settled the matter – as some sort of sign that all the threats related to the spread of the coronavirus had somehow receded, it turns out that things have indeed got so bad that we might need another shutdown very soon. And going by early reports, which will of course be verified or rejected by the government very soon, this one might come with a curfew to make sure people behave themselves.

It is just sad that we have wasted a precious opportunity to relax the lockdown to our advantage. All it needed was to go about things with a fair amount of common sense and get the economy slowly back on its feet again. For that, though, extraordinary discipline was required, which meant that only people who really had to leave their homes at any time should have been out, and the rest should just have put off shopping, eating out, and meeting relatives till a safer time. In such situations, even a few people’s carelessness can spread the virus exponentially and that too at frightening speed. Most people in Pakistan did not pay any attention to any rules at all. Crowds thronged to shopping markets, even high end outlets with top-of-the-line brands, like addicts just let loose from asylums. They didn’t think twice about putting their families at risk either, since a large number of women could be seen carrying their children along as well. These were not desperate people out to earn their daily bread in the face of hunger and starvation, these were people out shopping and making merry, even as doctors implored them to stay indoors and not make their jobs harder at least.

It mays till not be too late to understand that the real problem began at the top of Pakistan’s power structure. Initially, when the virus broke out, Sindh’s response was the correct one since one of the things the PPP government called for right at the beginning was a province wide quarantine. But the prime minister had a problem with the issue, even when the whole world agreed with time, and then there was the usual tussle between parties and provinces. And this confusion lasted right till the Supreme Court intervened – perhaps the only such instance since the pandemic began – and, to an extent, does so even now. Still, it is hoped that the right lessons have been learnt along the way and if another round of shutdown is advised, the whole nation will take it seriously. *