Following the outbreak of Coronavirus in China and its consequent spread across the globe, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) reportedly composed an ‘analysis and strategy document following the recent crisis in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic’, with the aim to attain clarity pertaining to the national response in Pakistan.
According to reports of Baaghi TV, the PPP has analyzed the recent crises in the hopes of attaining clarity ‘apropos Pakistan’s national response’ along with its shortcomings and the potential challenges to be able to tackle it with a coherent and inclusive policy. The objective behind their study was to comprehend the drawbacks of the response strategies including questions of where and why things went wrong. Moreover, focus was on identifying the strategies that were best for utilizing the national resources and efforts for both, long term and short term recovery, from the COVID-19.
It is to be noted that the outbreak has resulted in chaos within the socio-politico-economic, and even religious backdrops of the world with many developed countries struggling to cope with the pressure, including United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. While such countries have been struggling with the sudden pressure on their healthcare system and economies, Pakistan is ‘no exception’ considering we do not have such top-of-the-line facilities as yet. Since the spread across Pakistan, there has been a ‘consistent and exponential increase’ in viral cases although ‘fairly contained’ mortality rates. However, it is believed by epidemiologists that the pandemic has yet to reach its peak across Pakistan.
According to the study, it is to be expected that factors such as a ‘critical dearth of income equality and social inclusion, narrow social safety nets, large scale poverty, and unemployment’, are an additional cause of stress. Additionally, the economic impact on Pakistan have worsened since growth was already at an ‘all-time low’ for the last nearly nineteen months. It is to be noted that under the policies of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) administration, the national economy had been pushed towards a ‘severe’ shortage of revenue, bringing it to an estimated 42 trillion (in PKR). Furthermore, with the economy shrinking and the consequent reduction in employment opportunities as well as the government’s inability to create new jobs, the consequences of the pandemic have shaken the state completely.
According to the analysis, it is such deep-rooted challenges such as confused leadership, contradictory and often delayed decision-making, as well as incoherent statements et cetera, have respectively contributed to the insufficient efforts to contain the spread. Moreover, the paper advocates measure in order to manage the crises better. Apart from provincial autonomy, the document highlights opportunities at the national and the international levels to further inclusiveness, diplomacy, regional connectivity and exploring choices in order ‘to facilitate an improvement in the current affairs’, respectively.
The study discusses how ‘the relationship between plagues, pandemics and the human race predate written historical accounts, and evidence of the existence and impact of these phenomenon can be tracked back as early as circa 3000 BC’. It discusses how mass infections such as the ongoing pandemic have for ages, shaped human discourse, demography and history, in somewhat permanent ways.
The incubation period for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the diseases caused by it, as confirmed by experts is two weeks or fourteen days, and while the symptoms may vary from cases to case, there are certain similar discrepancies between those who have recovered from the novel virus. Moreover, it is to be noted that there isn’t enough data or scientifically verified information pertaining to the transmission, the symptoms and the impact of the virus, since not enough time has passed for the collected data to be thoroughly processed. In this regard, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a webpage dedicated to catering to some of the most dangerous myths/rumors surrounding COVID-19 and distinguishing them as fact from fiction.
[embeddoc url=”https://en.baaghitv.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/PPP-Covid-19-Paper.pdf” download=”all”]
Stay tuned to Baaghi TV for the latest news and updates!
