Highlights
- How many Pakistanis will work with the government?
- How many safety SOPs will be followed?
- I’m afraid of even thinking of what I know would unfold very soon.
- I hope, I pray, I’m wrong.
The world is skewed today. Exhausted. In a year, eighteen months, two years, once the familiar patterns of existence reclaim their position, redefined, rewritten, reshaped, there will be many stories of those few months when the world, as we knew it, wheezed to a halt. A virus gave birth to a disease, and almost every country of the world was forced to bend to the will of the infection that spread so fast it left leaders and doctors and politicians and scientists befuddled.
The novel coronavirus and its resultant COVID-19 are the global terms that unify and polarise humanity in the same measure. Much has changed. Yet not much has changed. Human beings are so conditioned to reacting, acting, self-promising, and publicly proclaiming to change, and reverting to the old that no disease would ever be able to affect a few fundamentals. Fifth month of the year, no vaccine in sight for many more months, and on May 14, there are 4,317,061 confirmed cases globally, according to John Hopkins Coronavirus Resources Centre, and 1,523,278 recovered patients, and 294,997deaths.
In the article I wrote for Gulf News exactly a week ago, the number of confirmed cases was 3,709,800, recovered patients were 1,225,364, and deaths were 259,695. In seven days, the addition to the number of confirmed cases is 607,261. In seven days, the addition to the number of dead is 35,302. How many of those 544,502 patients will recover and how many won’t make it…time and timely treatment will be the arbiter of that.
In the meantime, almost every country of the world that has been under lockdown in one form or the other, has decided to go into the easing-the-lockdown mode. There seems to be no other alternative. Public health officials in almost every country remain highly opposed to the idea of easing the lockdowns. Scientists, epidemiologists, virologists support the stance of doctors who are the frontline fighters against COVID-19. Governments, of developed, semi-developed and developing countries, all seem to have been pushed into a corner: to open on not open? The choice is hard as hell, but it has been made, mostly. Lockdowns have been or will be eased across the globe.
Images of multitudes of people in shopping areas, all across Pakistan, after the government-announced, phased, easing of lockdown on May 9, are the disturbing display of how human beings have the uncontrollable urge to revert to the familiar even when it comes with a bold-hued caption: beware of being a peril to the safety of your life and those of others.
Mosques were already open for congregational and Ramzan prayers. Then almost everything else opened. In all provinces of Pakistan, in all types of shops, mostly mask-less and glove-less customers and salespersons were seen in such close proximity it gave the impression COVID-19 was the name of an imaginary disease and all was well with the world.
On the 20th of Ramzan, I’m thinking about the number of people in almost every shopping area, high-end, retail and wholesale, of Pakistan. The flimsy green mask, available for a few rupees in every pharmacy, and sold by street hawkers, appears to the sole armour against a disease that I fear does not terrify people the way it should. Most Pakistanis have the belief that COVID-19 is treatable – which it is, and which it is not. Clearly, the number of 35,384 confirmed cases is not scary to the Pakistan of almost 220 million people. The number of 761 dead is miniscule. I find this complacency terrifying.
The fear of losing livelihood is so real it is not less than the fear of losing life. Shops and offices and businesses have to be opened for millions of people to make a living to pay for food, utilities, medical treatment, and other essential expenses for themselves and their families. And millions of people will flock to their shops and offices and businesses to buy essential and non-essential things for themselves and their families. Only a curfew can keep people in their houses. Only a jail cell is an impediment to free movement. Only a stringent lockdown, overseen by law enforcement agencies, backed up by fines, keeps people from thronging places that do not cater to their need for the essentials. All non-applicable.
Follow guidelines
I fear a rise in confirmed cases. Human beings can’t help being human beings. The craving to return to their old ways of living is so strong, an invisible virus, despite its deadliness of spread and infection, do not scare the way it should. I fear the already overburdened healthcare system of Pakistan would be pushed to the point of teetering and collapsing.
Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke to the nation on May 8: “The disease could get out of control if you don't take precautions. I’m saying this to all of you: you’d have to take responsibility. If the nation wishes to get out of this difficult time, government can’t make that happen with the force of danda (baton). All of you must work with the government. Safety SOPs must be followed.”
The rules for the health authorities to stop the transmission of the coronavirus from one human to another are simple yet extremely difficult to fully implement in a country of a huge population, a gaunt healthcare system, and excruciatingly limited financial and other resources: find; isolate; test, treat; contact tracing; quarantine. And engage the population to make them aware of the SOPs that would be their protection and of others.
How many Pakistanis will work with the government? How many safety SOPs will be followed? I’m afraid of even thinking of what I know would unfold very soon. I hope, I pray, I’m wrong.
The reality of not easing lockdowns is also frightening. The World Food Programme stated on April 21: “821 million people go to bed hungry every night all over the world, chronically hungry. …the new Global Report on Food Crisis published today shows, there are a further 135 million people facing crisis levels of hunger or worse. That means 135 million people on earth are marching towards the brink of starvation… more people could potentially die from the economic impact of COVID-19 than from the virus itself.”
That is Prime Minister Khan’s constant fear: people dying of hunger during a full lockdown. It is not a matter of lives versus livelihoods. It is a simple equation of lives versus lives. That is what anti-Khan forces in Pakistan need to understand instead of turning the sanctity of life into passionate speeches and hyperbolic slogans. To Prime Minister Khan, it is the life of every Pakistani, the forgotten, the invisible common man, that is invaluable. It is not economic stability that is the goal of Khan’s government in the time of the coronavirus. It is the life and wellbeing of the poor that is the fundamental concern of Prime Minister Imran Khan before and during the time of the coronavirus.
Pakistan will only be able to have safety of life amidst the growing number of COVID-19 cases if people follow the guidelines issued by government and health authorities. Much has been said about safety guidelines in Pakistan and the rest of the world. Now Pakistan needs a national reinforced awareness campaign.
Humans of Pakistan must follow certain guidelines to keep themselves and others safe: proper and frequent washing of hands; keeping hands sanitised; making use of masks as essential as wearing clothes; minimum number of people in any enclosed space at any given time; a minimum distance of six feet from others; no mass gathering; avoid crowded places; maintain social distancing keeping in mind that the safety of your life is, literally, connected to you staying away from one another physically.
It is all easier said than done. Will Pakistanis listen to their prime minister? To WHO? To local health authorities? To media warnings? To the rational ones around them?
I’m watching, with dread in my heart. Are my fingers crossed?
I’m afraid to check.
