Earlier a clear contrast in cases in Europe and South Asia led to greater optimism in Pakistan but that harsh reality slowly unraveled as soaring infection rates from the last three weeks turned the densely populated region into a dangerous hotspot. The situation led the government to impose smart lockdown in areas identified as hotspots.
The country started reporting daily record rise in cases and in deaths after Eid and just yesterday Pakistan registered its deadliest day of the outbreak so far with 136 deaths. Today the country had 118 new deaths and 5,358 new cases which brought the death tally to 3,093 and total cases crossed 160,118. Looking at the spike, Asad Umar the person in charge of the nerve center against COVID-19 National Command and Operation Centre predicted the tally of novel coronavirus can be doubled and reach 1.2 million by the end of July in Pakistan.
This led the government to impose smart lockdown in specific localities around the countries to control the hotspots. These areas are being identified as hotspots with the use of technology and subsequently, they are sealed. Now after few days of the enforcement of smart lockdown, it has begun to bear fruit as it was revealed on Wednesday that the number of coronavirus cases reduced by 90 percent in the areas of the federal capital which was sealed on June 13.
The premier Imran Khan patted his government on the back for the balanced way of handling the uncontrollable off shooting of coronavirus and also the threat of poverty. PM Khan said a smart lockdown was being imposed in areas across the country and the strategy has “saved people from poverty and slowed [the virus] down,” he claimed.
Smart lockdown along with following all precautionary measures like wearing masks and maintaining social distance may finally prove crucial in containing the spread of virus.
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