ISLAMABAD: Reiterating the government’s stance to avoid a nationwide lockdown, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Friday an economic package would be announced on Tuesday to save people from adverse impacts of coronavirus on the country’s economy as the number of patients reached 495.

The governments of Balochistan and Sindh decided otherwise; the former would lock down Quetta for three weeks while Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah appealed to the people of the province to self-quarantine for three days.

The decision to lock down Quetta was made at a meeting of the core committee headed by Chief Secretary Fazeel Asghar.

A notification issued by the Home and Tribal Affairs department on Friday said shopping malls and major markets would remain closed and inter-provincial and intra-city public transport were suspended for three weeks. The restaurants will only offer takeaway service.

Buses, trucks and other vehicles, which had left for different cities of Sindh, were stopped by the police at Sindh-Balochistan border.

• Quetta locked down for three weeks • People in Sindh asked to self-isolate for three days • Imran rules out countrywide lockdown

PM Khan disclosed that over 150,000 overseas Pakistanis, particularly those in most affected countries, wanted to return but the government had no facilities to accommodate them.

“We have no facilities to cater to such a big number of overseas Pakistanis at this stage,” he said, adding such facilities would be ready in next two weeks.

He said Pak-Afghan border would remain open for movement of trucks to facilitate trade as Pakistan would continue to support Afghan brethren even in the time of the coronavirus outbreak.

The prime minister was talking to journalists after a meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) formed to devise a strategy on combating the disease.

“A proposal was floated in the NCC meeting that the entire country should be locked down, but we cannot do so because lockdown will create another crisis, especially for daily wagers, vendors and people with low income,” Mr Khan said.

Meanwhile, the health ministry said the tally of coronavirus cases had reached 495. Of these cases, 238 belong to Sindh, 96 to Punjab, 81 to Balochistan, 31 to Gilgit-Baltistan / Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 23 to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 10 to Islamabad.

In Karachi, Health Secretary Zahid Abbasi told the Sindh CM in a meeting that 2,017 samples of suspected cases were taken from Sukkur and 83 from Larkana. “Of them, 1,217 have been declared negative and 238 positive, while the results of 402 of Sukkur and 83 of Larkana are still awaited,” he added.

Senator Murtaza Wahab said in a tweet that 72 people in Karachi had tested negative. “These people had exercised social distancing & quarantined themselves and the result is in front of u. Lets us all pledge to be responsible citizens.”

In Punjab, 18 new patients were tested positive on Friday. According to health authorities, 16 out of them had come from Iran and they were tested in Dera Ghazi Khan while one each belongs to Jhelum and Rawalpindi.

In Gilgit-Baltistan, nine more coronavirus cases were confirmed, according to the GB information department.

PM Khan urged people to avoid visiting public places and keep themselves in self-quarantine. “We cannot lock down the entire country but people should take care of themselves by keeping social distancing and not coming out of their houses unnecessarily,” he said.

He expressed the hope that the forthcoming hot and dry weather would help contain the pandemic. “There is a difference of opinion, but some doctors say that the type of heat Pakistan experiences makes the virus lose its effectiveness,” he said.

“If we exercise discipline for the next one-and-a-half months and avoid going to public places, and if those showing symptoms self-quarantine themselves, then the spread of the virus can be controlled,” he said.

Panic termed more dangerous

PM Khan said the country was confronting two major issues: “If the situation continues to worsen and the number of cases spikes, then at least four to five per cent of the patients will need intensive care. This can become a serious problem because we don’t have the facilities to deal with a huge number of patients. The second thing is panic spreading among the people.

“In the current situation, panicking is more dangerous for us than coronavirus as the government will not be able to do anything if people start panic-buying,” he said.

People in the UK had started buying weapons for their safety fearing that people may barge into their homes to snatch food items, he pointed out.

The prime minister said Pakistan could not afford complete lockdown because its economy is not as strong as those of Italy, Spain and other European countries. “If we impose a nationwide lockdown, we fear for our daily wage workers and labourers. What will they do for the next [few] weeks?”

Adviser to the prime minister on finance Dr Hafeez Sheikh said the government would announce a comprehensive economic package on Tuesday under which taxes would be reduced and more subsidies would be given to people.

The prime minister said the government wanted to keep the wheel of economy moving and for that purpose it had decided to introduce incentives for the construction industry, which would be announced next week. “This will help provide people with employment and keep the economy running. We do not have the means for a lockdown. We don’t want to see that while we try to save people from coronavirus, they end up dying due to hunger and poverty,” he added.

He said the government would offer incentives to industries to protect the country’s economy, as well as the labour class, from the negative impact of coronavirus.

Earlier, he tweeted that Pak-Afghan border would remain open for trade. “Despite global pandemic of COVID-19. We remain committed to supporting our Afghan brothers and sisters. I have given instructions to open the Chaman-Spinboldak border and let trucks crossover into Afghanistan. In time of crisis, we remain steadfast with Afghanistan,” he said.

The prime minister urged the media to act wisely and not to present such reports which could cause panic among masses. He said the government had no intention to hide anything.

Tahir Siddiqui in Karachi, Saleem Shahid in Quetta and Jamil Nagri in Gilgit also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2020