ISLAMABAD: As the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Covid-19 has finalised recommendations to further ease restrictions, the medical fraternity seems divided over the federal government’s proposal, with the number of deaths rising to 40 in a single day.

As per a statement of the Ministry of National Health Services, the recommendations include the opening of second phase of construction sector, reopening of retail outlets, and operationalisation of selective Out Patients Departments in hospitals of Islamabad. It has been suggested that shops/malls should remain open from 9am to 5pm and then from 8pm to 10pm.

However, some doctors fear that relaxing the lockdown will be disastrous for the country. Others believe Pakistan has no option but to revive economic activities to protect the masses from “hunger virus”.

Doctors divided over lockdown relaxation

While talking to Dawn, Dr Javed Akram, the vice chancellor of the University of Health Sciences (UHS), said he was in favour of restrictions but as the government looked at it with different angles, he would suggest that the lockdown be relaxed with an increase in number of tests.

“There is no doubt that daily wage earners and other segments of society have been suffering with economic issues. Prime Minister Imran Khan has said a number of times that he has to care about the poor. Pak­istan is not a rich country and the issue is not going to be add­ressed in a short time. So I suggest that we should relax the lock­down but the number of tests should be increased. Curr­ently Al-Khidmat Foundation has been doing tests for Rs3,000 and Bahria Town is conducting tests for just Rs2,000. The government should involve philanthropists and reduce the charges of tests,” he added.

Dr Akram explained that in South Korea companies were involved, by the government, to test the masses and suggested that in Pakistan it should be made mandatory that every organisation should pay for the test of suspected employees.

Health system may collapse

However, President of the Young Consultants Association of Pakistan Dr Asfandyar Khan disagreed with the proposal. He said: “I am shocked to hear that a recommendation has been given to open OPDs and shopping malls. I fear that it will increase the number of patients manifold and the health system may collapse. We are living in a country where even doctors are not getting ventilators. One should imagine what will be the situation after [further] relaxing the restrictions. To me the decision or proposal is disastrous and it should be reconsidered.”

Dr Khan said the lockdown should be extended for at least two weeks. He said restrictions could be relaxed once the curve of Covid-19 cases started flattening.

Microbiologist Prof Dr Javaid Usman while sharing his opinion with Dawn said mostly people didn’t have the tendency to obey orders and adhere to rules as they usually did in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates so things would worsen in the coming days.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan has been talking about the poor people and the argument being given is that coronavirus kills two per cent people but hunger can kill 100pc people,” he said.

Being a health professional, Dr Usman said, he believed that the government must wait for the flattening of curve. But as federal minister Asad Umar had said that 18 million people could lose jobs and up to 70 million people might be pushed below the poverty line due to coronavirus, the logic of the government could not be ignored, he said.

In the United Kingdom, he said, a term ‘herd immunity’ was introduced for coronavirus and it was decided not to close schools but the move failed due to unexpected number of fatalities. Resultantly, he added, the UK had to close educational institutions.

Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Secretary General Dr Qaiser Sajjad told Dawn that the problems and number of coronavirus cases would increase if the recommendations were implemented but it seemed the government was left with no choice after failing to enforce proper lockdown in time.

“On January 22nd, the PMA had suggested to enforce complete lockdown across the country but unfortunately the federal and provincial governments were not on the same page. If proper lockdown had been enforced in January, today we would have been in a [better] position to relax the restrictions,” he claimed.

He said according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations, the lockdown should be relaxed after flattening the curve. “Our cases and number of deaths are continuously increasing,” he added.

Dr Sajjad said the situation had worsened so much that the government had to go either for the eradication of coronavirus or “hunger virus”. He said: “I can assume that the traders do most of the business in Ramazan and there would be immense pressure on the government to relax restrictions.”

Meanwhile, according to NCOC data, 1,049 cases of Covid-19 were reported on May 5 and as many as 40 persons died.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2020