Selected lockdown

The number of coronavirus cases keep rising and have crossed the grim 150,000 mark by mid-June. The government has now decided to impose a ‘selected lockdown’ only in areas with high rate of inflections.

The NCOC, the nerve centre handling the coronavirus response, has identified 20 cities as potential hotpots for COVID-19 infections. Seven of these cities are in Punjab and require restrictive measures. Several parts of Lahore, some with large populations of their own, have been sealed as part of the lockdown strategy.

It will be now a matter of time when we could see if this strategy works. The comments of Punjab’s health minister suggests that people are still not taking the virus seriously, and are themselves responsible for the rising number of cases.

A smart lockdown is imposed using a strategy of test, tracing and quarantining (TTQ) which is now seen as a solution by a prime minister averse to a complete lockdown. The problem lies that test capacity is still very low and no efforts are being made to trace suspected virus carriers. The government need to ramp up testing capacity and even reach those in tightly-populated settlements.

The situation is exacerbated by a public which opens flouts public rules and escapes punitive action. The government make it compulsory to wear a face mask but this is hardly observed on public. Shops have also failed to implement the ‘no mask, no service’ nor are shopkeepers wearing a face mask. There is no doubt that our lack of collective apathy is responsible for the dire circumstances we are facing.

The death toll from the coronavirus is rising and we are witnessing more than a hundred deaths per day. The government does not have a contingency plan nor alternate in case the smart lockdown strategy is not working. Will the government take the tough decision to impose a lockdown once again? Or will the lives and health of millions of people will be at stake?

The lawmakers are not immune from the coronavirus as more than 100 members of parliament have been diagnosed. Many prominent politicians from several parties are among them. The rulers should realise the gravity of the situation as they themselves have been through it. We hope that ‘smart lockdown’ is a success or else we might have to make drastic and rather painfull decisions.