ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is going to further ease its coronavirus lockdowns to resume economic activity, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday.
“We need to ease the lockdown so that people can get jobs. But we have to be careful because all of our efforts will go in vain if people don’t take precautionary measures,” Khan said in a televised address.
Partial lockdowns to contain the spread of coronavirus were imposed on March 23 and have been extended on a fortnightly basis ever since. As the current extension is set to expire May 9, the government is going to review it this week and decide whether and how restrictions can be eased.
Several nationwide restrictions on access to public places have already been lifted in the past few days, while some government offices have been reopened.
However, as the authorities are planning to restart the economy, Pakistan is seeing a surge in reported virus cases.
On Monday, the infection tally crossed 20,000, as over 1,000 new cases were reported.
More than 460 people are known to have succumbed to the disease.
With a population of over 210 million, Pakistan has so far conducted about 212,500 coronavirus tests.
