Since March 18th, Pakistan has been in some kind of lockdown, with the first step taken by educational institutes such as LUMS after a coronavirus scare when a delegation of 15 plus students came home from a MUN conference in Turkey.
By the time all of those students tested negative, the rest of the country when into partial and, in some cases, complete lockdown with the lead of Sindh. All interprovincial travel on public transports was banned, flights postponed, factories shut down, restaurants closed, and grocery stores and other essential services placed under time restrictions.
But the issue of poverty and hunger is ever prevalent and much more nuanced in the face of the pandemic as daily wage earners and owners of small businesses face extreme difficulties in the absence of the daily hubbub of activity which earns them their income. ‘Our economy can’t take this for much longer’ is the most commonly heard phrase on tv.
In addition, added resistance from the far-right, religious conservatives that refuse to disband congregations in the name of social distancing and safety has increased the push for the end of social distancing.
The Prime Minister tweeted at the onset of the pandemic:
On March 23rd, most of the country went into a 14-day lockdown, which was later extended to May 9th. The government had actively encouraged all Pakistanis to avoid mass gatherings and stay at home and avoid unnecessary travel.
One of the biggest obstacles in the maintenance of social distancing plans were cultural factors. Pakistani culture is one that is big on physical contact, from shaking hands to hugging, in the absence of such, it is considered an affront to desi values. Combining this tenet with one of the lowest literacy rates in the region makes for a harmful equation.
People here are oblivious to the scope and harmful impact of the pandemic on Pakistanis as a society and our economy. The Friday prayers, which are mandatory for all Muslims, in many cases went on unabashedly with armed shooters standing near entrances in some cases.
The Tableeghi Jamaat, a religious group based in an area called Raiwind congregated despite the warnings of the government to stay home is now singlehandedly responsible for being the biggest spreader of the virus.
On the other hand, the elites of the country, which have a propensity for partying and meeting up for socials, refused to scale back their engagements, indulging in lunches at cafes to dinners at different restaurants celebrating returns from ‘abroad.’
Moreover, the months of March and April are part of the six-month-long wedding season in Pakistan, and many weddings were held despite the request of the government to scale back those events.
On April 13th, officials in Pakistan announced that some parts of the economy were to be partially opened to combat the hefty price of the lockdown on the economy despite the rising numbers of cases. The sectors that were to opened were construction, export, and textile. These factories were only to use half of their workforce.
While there is no concrete plan in place to end social distancing in Pakistan, there are number measures in place here to deal with the new reality. All malls, bakeries, shops, and factories have place sanitation gates at their entrances, with additional temperature checks by the personnel placed there. Any customer that has a high fever is turned away. Moreover, virus hot-spots remain sealed – these are places where the disease is most widespread.
The Prime Minister summed up concerns in a video on April 12th, “The biggest worry now is people dying of hunger. The dilemma on one side is stopping people dying from the virus, and on the other hand, preventing deaths from hunger as a result of the lockdown.”
Given the harsh impact of the lockdown or social distancing on the economy, on the lives of people and the mental health of millions, there needs to be a consideration of other routes that can be taken instead of social distancing.
One is to develop a vaccine. While there are trials underway, the likelihood of a vaccine coming out soon is not good. In addition, once it has been developed, there is no guarantee that there will be ease of access for everyone.
One of the most significant ways to end social distancing, in theory, is to start tracing contacts. One of the ways this has been done is in Singapore, which uses an app called TraceTogether, which uses Bluetooth connectivity to register when two phones are in close vicinity for a given time frame. This allows officials to alert people that may come in contact with someone that carries the virus and urge them to self-quarantine for a while and prevent the spread of the disease.
This can be replicated all over the world. The model essentially has easily accessible testing follows a system that identifies people that could have been infected by the virus and prevent the spread of it further. This will be contact tracing, which will allow the chain of transmission to be broken up, as people suspected of having contracted the virus will be notified immediately and asked to isolate themselves for the set incubation period.
But there are additional qualms that come with the solution, the first being the issue of surveillance and the impediment on human rights to privacy in a democratic state. There is also the issue of readily available diagnostic testing and a workforce of health professionals that are available readily to track down everything.
The future seems to be on a bleak trajectory, for now, life as we have known it seems like a farfetched reality because even when the lockdown or social distancing ends, it is likely quarantine orders may still be in place, and people might be encouraged to work from home, and mass gatherings scaled back.
Renewable energy has emerged as a game-changer in the global energy landscape, offering sustainable and… Read More