THE provinces have expressed their reservations about the lockdown. This looks the government is pondering easing the lockdown throughout the country after having failed to reach a consensus among all the stakeholders regarding one effective approach.

It is foolish to think one approach can be effective for a province, leave alone the whole country. We are hearing a lot about a ‘smart lockdown’, but whatever we have in Pakistan is far from it. In fact, it is a mockery of the smart lockdown.

The current situation merits a really smart approach for the smart implementation of the smart lockdown. I would suggest to the government that each district of a province should be categorised into three separate entities depending on the prevalence of Covid-19. They can be red, yellow or green.

We will take Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as a model to understand my point. In KP, the districts where Covid-19 has wreaked havoc are Peshawar, Mardan, Swat, Buner, Dir and Malakand. They should be declared red districts and here the lockdown should be further enhanced instead of being eased out. Definitely it will cause some economic and social issues in these areas but we can’t eradicate this menace without taking such drastic measures.

All government machinery should be employed to effectively counter these problems in the red districts. This includes enhancing the capacity of all hospitals there, a strict implementation of lockdown and contingency plans for the public.

Then there are districts where coronavirus spread is moderate like Manshera, Abbottabad, Kohat, Bannu, etc. They should be declared yellow districts. Here the lockdown can be partially eased but with stringent standard operating procedures.

Lastly, there are districts where Covid-19 spread is negligible. These are green districts. They include Tank, Haripur, Kohistan, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan and Karak. The lockdown in these districts can be lifted completely but the necessary SOPs need to be followed for the time being.

One can argue why I have included D.I. Khan in the green district list given that initially D.I. Khan was in the limelight owing to Covid-19. One shouldn’t forget that in D.I. Khan all positive cases were found among the pilgrims coming back from Iran, who were quarantined in a temporary setup made in Gomal Medical College.

After the influx of pilgrims stopped, the quarantine centre has remained empty. Besides, there have only been five or six positive cases of local transmission in the district which were dealt with quite effectively. One must applaud the D.I. Khan administration.

One other important thing is a ban on inter-district public transport which should continue for the time being irrespective of the district category. Lack of public transportation is one of the major reasons why the KP’s southern districts have lower ratio of positive cases.

Meanwhile, the intra-district transport can be eased partially in yellow districts and completely in the green districts. I hope the authorities concerned will look into these suggestions.

Dr Muhammad Zahid

Peshawar

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AS the federal government and provincial administrations begin to ease the lockdown imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic, there are numerous decisions that need to be taken to set the course for future strategy.

One thing that became apparent in the lockdown which continued with different levels of severity for nine weeks was that economic and social activity has faced major setbacks. To give a breathing space, easing the lockdown was the need of the hour.

A quick glance of the situation in the nine-week lockdown period, since the first Covid-19 case was reported in Pakistan, will reveal that the country has mostly been struggling to find a national direction to fight the virus.

The differences between the Centre and the Sindh government on how to deal with the situation with both refusing to budge from their positions showed disunity at the very hour when national cohesion and a unified public health strategy was needed. In this melee, it is the common man who has suffered as conflicting instructions were issued while both sides settled scores.

Now that a decision to ease the lockdown has been taken all sides should practise tolerance and display political harmony so that the people feel that their leaders are on the same page on this matter.

As our country struggles to provide basic health and economic facilities to the people, the federal and provincial governments should not let Covid-19 become a national crisis. To achieve this goal, it is necessary that the people in power should rise above their political interests and think of the people first.

Hadia Mukhtar

Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2020