ISLAMABAD: During a visit to China on Tuesday, Pakistan President Arif Alvi violated the first rule of social distancing protocols being followed the world over: No handshakes. And Pakistanis at home took notice.
During a photo-op with President Xi of China, the two men firmly held hands and posed for the flashing cameras. A video later released on Alvi’s official Twitter page showed a Beijing meeting room with dozens of officials sitting side by side-- and not at least a meter apart as distancing guidelines prescribe.
“As an experienced and reputable doctor, I wish you had led by example and reached a decision with President Xi Jinping to not shake hands, especially at a time when social distancing is the best weapon against Covid 19,” tweeted a Pakistani writer, Noman Ansari.
Alvi, a full-time dentist before taking on the country’s presidency in 2018, on Sunday coined the hashtag #IFightCorona, as a social media movement encouraging Pakistanis to share their own contributions in the battle against COVID-19, which has claimed almost 8,000 lives around the globe and infected 200,000 people. There are currently 246 confirmed cases of the virus in Pakistan with no reported deaths.
On Saturday, he shared six guidelines on his Twitter, calling on Pakistanis to share them far and wide.
“Refuse to shake hands and embrace,” was in the President’s top three prescriptions.
“In current scenario, we are spreading this idea of social distancing and not shaking hands. Honorable sir, you went against basics of #IFightCorona,” tweeted a disappointed Twitter user, Amna Zamir Shah-- a lawyer from Gilgit Baltistan.
But in a Twitter post on Wednesday afternoon following the social media uproar, Alvi said all precautions had been taken during his trip to China.
“We implemented #iFightCorona protocols for our hi-level meetings. Both delegations, Presidents, Ministers, all staff, + of flight & embassy, underwent 2 tests (throat swab + blood) to ensure health before we met. Result of last tests taken before departure for home were clean too,” the President tweeted.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was also part of the President’s trip to China, announced he was going into self-quarantine for five days after which he would get tested. The President, and other senior high ranking officials accompanying him, have not yet announced any quarantine measures.
The two-day high-level visit to China was undertaken to express solidarity with Pakistan’s northeastern neighbor which has been largely successful in defeating the novel coronavirus that first erupted in Hubei province late last year and was later declared a global pandemic.
On Tuesday evening, in his first address to the nation since the outbreak was first reported in Pakistan last month, Prime Minister Imran Khan urged citizens to take strict social distancing precautions.
In a widely circulated photo first shared by the Prime Minister’s office, Khan is seen greeting religious scholar Tariq Jameel from a safe distance. Alongside the photo, the PM office tweeted: “We all need to play our role and avoid handshakes & other physical contact to ensure public health & safety.”
But around the world, world leaders have been having a hard time breaking the handshake habit, with videos widely shared of leaders like President Donald Trump and Prince Charles forgetting to follow the pandemic’s distancing protocols.
