LAHORE: The provincial administration of Punjab on Wednesday launched an initiative entitled NORM to deliver free face masks to people at their doorstep to ensure their safety and prevent the possibility of a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the country’s most densely populated region.

The Pakistan Medical Association recently warned against another surge in COVID-19 cases and highlighted the importance of following health guidelines to prevent further spread of the virus.

The NORM model is an evidence-based approach to increasing mask-wearing and is being implemented in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Latin America.

“This unique model to deliver face masks at people’s doorsteps has been originally conceived by the students Yale and Stanford universities,” Commissioner Lahore Captain Muhammad Usman Younis told Arab News, adding the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) was helping implement the project.

“The district government approached philanthropists and the business community [to implement the project] and they gave us a positive response,” he said, saying provincial authorities would distribute “10.5 million masks in Lahore alone.”

Speaking to Arab News, Maha Rehman, a LUMS faculty member supervising the project, said the initiative was based on a similar project launched in rural areas in Bangladesh.

“The mask distribution campaign will also be extended to mosques and markets,” she said, noting that celebrities had also been engaged to reinforce the awareness campaign.

Apart from university students and the business community, the project has also been supported by the country’s postal service free of cost.

“We are partners of the Punjab government in the project initiated by the Lahore commissioner, and we plan to deliver 4.5 million masks in the first phase of the campaign to the people of Lahore,” Shahid Iqbal, superintendent of the Pakistan Post in Lahore, told Arab News, adding that the project would soon be expanded to other districts of the province as well.

President of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tariq Misbah said the business community in the city had also distributed masks and sanitizers among police officers working in the metropolis.

“We are fully participating in the cause and will meet the demand of the district and provincial governments in connection with this,” he noted.