Covid-19 positivity rising: Indian variant can hurt Pakistan, says PM

 ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan cautioned Thursday that there is a danger that the fourth wave of the coronavirus is coming, so in view of the increase in cases, he appealed to the people to wear masks, and warned of another lockdown if precaution was not taken.

The prime minister said that as our cases have come down, they have started going up again and are going up because we are in danger that the Indian variant of virus has also come to Pakistan.

“I know that people all over the world, including Pakistan, are tired of following SOPs, but we fear that the fourth wave of the virus is coming, so I appeal to the people of Pakistan in view of the increase in cases, if we wear mask, we will be able to save the country from the fourth wave of this virus,” he noted.

“The risk of the virus spreading in closed rooms, weddings, restaurants, etc. is high. If you are walking in a park and there is a distance between you, then you can avoid wearing a mask, but be careful by wearing a mask in buses. Wearing this mask is not a difficult task but it will save our country and economy which we have been able to do so far,” he emphasised.

Commenting on the situation of corona in the country, the prime minister said in his televised statement that the biggest problem remains the Indian type of virus. “It is a virus that is taking a different form from India and spreading all over the world, currently Bangladesh is witnessing a very bad condition because of this virus, while in India we all know how devastating it has been.”

Imran Khan noted that this type of virus has now reached Afghanistan, the hospitals in Afghanistan have run out of oxygen, and at one point India was facing the same situation. He added that now the pandemic has also reached Indonesia and the situation there is also bad, and there are other problems including lack of oxygen, while a large number of people are dying from this virus every day.

Imran Khan said that so far Allah has done us a special favour, no matter how hard a person tries, in the end Almighty Allah decides whether or not our effort will be successful; Allah has given us a lot of success so far. He said that according to The Economist survey, Pakistan is the third country that has saved itself in the best possible way and in addition to the government’s hard work, the nation has a big hand in saving the country from such a bad situation.

The prime minister said that Pakistan is the only country in the whole Muslim world where all the mosques remained open in spite of this pandemic during Ramazan for two consecutive years. In other Muslim countries, he said, mosques were closed.

“If we have reached here today, our National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) had a lot of hard work and monitoring, and they told us things beforehand but at the same time the people stood by the government and that is why today we are better than the world around us,” he said.

Imran Khan said that poverty has spread all over the world due to this virus, the poor have been crushed, just because when you apply lockdown, the biggest loss is to the weak and poor class. “So for your nation, for the sake of your elders and economy, be careful and wear masks on the occasion of Eid,” he said.

He said that like last year, this year too, the sacrifice has to be taken out of the city so that the virus does not spread due to it, and even on Eid, every effort is made to wear masks and be careful. He paid homage to the administration and said, “We have put a lot of pressure on you to be careful and we want to test you further to see that people wear masks during Eid and if we truly do, we will save ourselves”.

He added, “If the fourth wave of the virus comes and the cases start going up fast, then we will have to lock down, close restaurants, close wedding halls and affect people's jobs. If the people take precautions now to avoid these restrictions, we can save our country from hardship and we will be able to save our people from it, unlike the lockdowns imposed in Bangladesh and Indonesia.”

Until all the people are vaccinated, he noted, the virus will continue to come, and added that as long as we do not vaccinate all our people, this wave of virus will continue to come. “I want to urge people to vaccinate.”

The prime minister said, “I have confidence in the people of this country. Whenever there is a test, our people move forward with an open heart. If they are not paying taxes, it is because they did not have confidence that our taxes were used properly but we are restoring their confidence.”