Bilawal foresees virus lockdown in Pakistan

KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said Pakistan is heading towards a coronavirus lockdown and warned the country has reached a level where there will now be “community spread”.

“The cases do not only point towards those who returned from foreign travels but also those who interacted with them,” the PPP chairman said at a news conference at the Sindh Assembly on Thursday, a day after the country reported its first two virus-related deaths.

“The Sindh government took measures as soon as there was news of an outbreak in China,” said Bilawal. He said the outbreak of the virus is a serious situation and must be taken seriously by every citizen of Pakistan.

“I would like to emphasise that coronavirus is an extremely serious and life-threatening issue [...] it is 10 times worse than the flu,” said the PPP chairman, stressing that the mortality rate, while still not definitively known, is much higher than the flu.

The PPP chairman said it is important to remember that the disease does not only affect the elderly and those with underlying conditions, but can affect anyone. “Of the two people who have died from the disease, one was 36-year-old and one was 50 years of age, which means they were not very advanced in their years. Even then, there is no need to spread panic because we are working day and night with all our hearts so we can ensure the protection of all your lives,” said Bilawal.

He said the federal government now needs to focus on mitigating the spread of Covid-19 by focusing on social distancing and isolation, and to maximise testing capabilities — a “two-pronged approach”. “Sindh government on its own has arranged 10,000 testing kits,” he said.

Bilawal said unity is the need of the hour and a joint strategy to combat the virus will have to be developed for our efforts to be effective. “We must not have our energies and focus geared towards criticism, blame and political point-scoring,” he urged, while also stressing that the federal government will have to bring “some changes” in its action plan.

He said there was a dire need to work towards mitigating the spread of the contagion. “We are already too late. The statistics we have of other countries [...] show us that there has been mitigation and a flattening of the curve (where strict quarantine measures were taken immediately).”

Bilawal said that the Sindh government is aware of the economic impact of the outbreak and will take “concrete measures to tackle it”. “We will need to take some serious steps to keep the economy afloat,” he said.