Did Pakistan just beat the coronavirus?
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, a lot of Pakistanis got concerned about what was about to happen in the 6th biggest population in the world.
Timestamps:
0:00 – Intro
1:20 – How it started
03:35 – Younger Population
04:45 – The government takes credit
05:21 – Warm Weather
06:03 – People took care of themselves
06:23 – Herd Immunity
07:48 – Lack of Testing
08:25 Social Stigma
But as the whole world was coming to its knees, with countries like the U.S., Brazil and India surging in numbers, Pakistan took a U-turn and significantly dropped in number of cases and deaths. Even the top leading medical experts of the country were dumbfounded by what had happened.
In this video, we will explore how it started and how it expanded.
From Saadat Khan to the hundreds of Pakistanis that were visiting neighboring Iran for a religious visit who were returning back to the country bringing in more covid-19 with them. Things only escalated from there. The nation found itself unprepared for what was about to happen.
The Pakistani government’s response to the crisis:
While the world went into lockdown mode, the Imran Khan administration tried to present their case of handling the situation. He said that the situation in Pakistan is different than the rest of the world. While other countries could afford a lockdown, Pakistan couldn’t. As a lot of people were under the poverty line and depend on daily work in order to feed their families. So if people don’t die due to Covid-19, they`ll definitely die due to hunger and starvation.
So what really caused this sudden downturn and change of events.
The theories include:
Younger population
Smart lockdown by the Imran Khan administration
Warm weather
People taking care of themselves
Herd Immunity
But the most important factor: the Lack of testing
According to the BBC in Pakistan, testing levels have fallen, which will have had an impact on the number of positive cases recorded.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a benchmark range for adequate testing of between 10 and 30 per confirmed case in a country or region.
South Asian have countries fare poorly on this measure, although Nepal and India do now fall within the range deemed adequate by the WHO, Pakistan is still less than 10%.
Social stigma around getting testing:
People themselves have also started going less to testing facilities. Misinformation, conspiracy theories and social stigma around being tested positive is also whats keeping people away from getting tested.
I’ve been concerned about the people of Pakistan since the pandemic started because the reality is that the state and the medical health care structure in Pakistan is not equipped to handle this level of national health crisis. But although it is a relief to see things not getting as bad as the rest of the world, the truth is that even all the senior health care officials, doctors and experts agree on one thing, that is they have no idea why the number of cases and deaths have dropped.
Instead of giving people false hope and opening back schools and universities, the country really needs to understand that the pandemic is far from over. There is no vaccine and we are yet to truly understand this virus. Even the World Health Organization has acknowledged there is no evidence that a change in season has a change in the impact of its spread.
People without privilege obviously have no choice but to go to work to feed their families, but people who can afford to work or stay home, should do so, otherwise they might not get affected but can certainly affect the ones who are vulnerable.
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