KARACHI: Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has warned against all possible chances of a third COVID-19 wave in the country exposing people unless stringent precautionary measures are not taken on an urgent basis at every level.
Addressing a press conference, several doctors representing the PMA took strong exception to the rampant indifference on part of the people with regard to SOPs including social distancing, use of masks, and hand washing. Dr SM Qaiser Sajjad (Secretary-General, PMA-Center), Dr Qazi Wasiq (Treasurer, PMA -Centre), Dr Mirza Ali Azhar (President, PMA-Sindh) and Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro (General-Secretary, PMA-Karachi) addressed the press conference.
They urged both the federal and provincial governments to come forward with foolproof legislation and impose fines for all those found violating the safety procedures. The doctors reiterated that these are critical to avert spread of the viral disease and said authorities must ensure its implementation across the board and with absolutely no exceptions.
The doctors were also of the unanimous opinion that lockdown during the second phase of COVID 19 was quite late and its debilitating impact could also be well felt through a steady increase in the number of new cases and growing mortality rate. While emphasising that prevention and precaution are key to facing the challenge, the speakers said the vaccines may not reach the country till the end of the next year.
It was mentioned that PMA had been regularly issuing ‘Health Alerts’ since early this year comprising suggestions for the government on how to avert any possible epidemic and also sensitising people about the virus and modes to contract it along with its implications and possibilities to avoid the contagiou disease.
They regretted that their advice was not heeded causing scores of avoidable deaths including those of doctors and paramedics treating the patients. They claimed that currently the virus has become more lethal and its new variant has already been recorded in at least fifteen countries of the world.
