A.M.BHATTI
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has once again emphasized the need to create awareness among masses to strictly follow standard operating procedure to prevent spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking in the National Assembly Thursday, he said our health system can cope with the challenge of pandemic if people strictly follow the preventive measures and burden on hospitals will increase if SOPs are not adhered in letter and spirit.
The Prime Minister said that it is an obligation on us to protect our elderly and sick people, patients of heart and blood pressure and chronic diseases.
Imran Khan said that Tiger Force has been deployed to convince people to observe SOPs to prevent contagion.
Imran Khan said we introduced smart lockdown instead of complete lockdown to protective our people from the disease and hunger. He said thirty-four percent people have gone below the poverty line in India due to complete lockdown which vindicate our stance of not going for complete curfew.
The Prime Minister dispelled the impression that there was any confusion on part of the government in taking measures to cope with the challenge of coronavirus. He said we enforced lockdown as soon as we detect just twenty cases in Pakistan but it has been my consistent fear that corona is a phenomenon that nobody can predict anything about it.
He said in view of high density population in Pakistan we cannot enforce complete lockdown for longer period of time as we have to protect our people both from coronavirus and hunger.
He said the government established National Command and Operation Centre to gather data, get expert opinion from doctors, input from provinces and evaluate world’s trends in dealing with the pandemic. He said now we have verified and updated data about corona patients and availability of necessaries medical equipment, including personal protective equipment, ventilators and beds in hospital.
