KARACHI: The provincial health chief of Sindh province on Wednesday urged the NCOC, Pakistan’s federal body overseeing the COVID-19 pandemic response, to review its recent decision to allow public transportation in cities and ease other coronavirus restrictions, saying it would lead to another spike in infections across the country.
To curb rising COVID-19 cases, the government had imposed a nationwide lockdown from May 8 to 16, including a ban on tourism and intercity public transport during the Eid Al-Fitr holidays last week. On Monday, Pakistan said it would continue its ban on tourism across the country “until further notice” but ease all other COVID-19 restrictions.
From Sunday, public transport services resumed in all provinces and cities across the country. Authorities also re-opened markets and shops and allowed offices to resume operations with 50 percent capacity.
But while participating in a meeting of the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) on Wednesday, Singh Health Minister Dr. Azra Pechuho reminded of an abrupt rise in the number of COVID-19 infections last year after people celebrated the Islamic festival of Eid Al-Fitr
“The baseline is much higher this time around, so the numbers will also be significantly larger,” she said, warning of a rapid spread of the virus due to significant public mobility during Eid holidays. “We will see COVID-19 cases rising further.”
Pechuho said allowing 70 percent occupancy in railway carriages should also be reconsidered, adding that provincial authorities in Sindh would urge railway operations to be curtailed for at least seven to 10 days more days and then review the situation after that.
The provincial minister said 25 positive coronavirus cases had been confirmed among people who recently traveled by air to Pakistan, saying the Sindh Health Department would carry out genomic sequence studies of the samples to determine which variants were found.
“International travel is exacerbating the rise and spread of infections, and we have to be more stringent at airports with rapid antigen testing as well as PCR,” Pechuho said. “It is also probably true that international travelers may not exhibit symptoms until a week or ten days after landing and some of them could be spreading the virus within their communities as quarantine requirements for international travelers are not being implemented.”
As of Wednesday, the coronavirus positivity rate in the whole province was 10.2 percent as 2,076 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours — over half of them, 1,260, in the seaside megapolis of Karachi.
On May 17, Karachi recorded a 26.3 percent positivity rate, with the eastern parts of the city most affected by the coronavirus.
Speaking to Arab News, Pechuho said things would get worse in the absence of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI).
Responding to a question about the reason for the sudden surge in infections in Karachi’s eastern neighborhoods, the minister attributed it to a violation of officially prescribed precautionary measures.
“It is due to violation of the NPIs,” she said. “Currently, authorities in Sindh are implementing this by suspending businesses.”
Speaking to Arab News, Dr. Qaiser Sajjad, general secretary of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), said COVID-19 restrictions should only be eased after ensuring strict implementation of health safety guidelines.
“On Chand Raat [the night before Eid], all shops were open and people did not practice social distancing or follow other SOPs [standard operating procedures] while offering Eid prayers the next day,” he said. “People also hugged each other [to fulfil the traditional ritual on Eid] and held parties at homes. It is not surprising that we are now witnessing a rise in COVID-19 cases.”
