SOCIAL DISTANCE - THE BEST STRATEGY

The global community is currently facing the most dangerous challenge of the century in the form of COVID-19 which, due to its exponential spread across the world, is quite similar to the influenza pandemic of 1918-29, estimated to have claimed 30-40 million lives in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Brazil and the South Pacific.

At the moment, it is really hard to predict how long it will take to get rid of the coronavirus and how many lives it will consume across the globe until an effective vaccine could be developed against it and made available to all the affected countries. As things stand at the moment, experts believe that the best weapon against the spread of the virus is ‘containment’ through social distancing and lockdowns depending on the severity of the problem.

China has shown the world how the spread of the virus could be contained. Nevertheless, in spite of the success achieved by China in controlling the virus – at least for now – it is also believed that the Chinese strategy could not be replicated in other countries lock, stock and barrel.

However, following the logic of containment, European countries are using extreme social distancing and home quarantines in varying degrees to contain the spread of virus. USA and European countries, in spite of their economic strength and state-of-the-art health facilities, have not gone for complete lockdowns like China as it involves enormous social and economic costs which only a country like China can afford to implement. Developing countries like Pakistan neither have the capacity to enforce complete lockdowns nor the resources to defray the costs involved in dealing with the consequences of such actions. They will surely need help from the affluent global community to confront the challenge.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has rightly and justifiably asked developed nations to write off loans given to developing countries. His contention of not enforcing a complete lockdown or curfew also has considerable merit. Forty percent of our population lives below the poverty line. Such an action would make the lives of daily wage earners, labourers and the indigent extremely difficult. The government, in spite of its willingness and commitment to mitigate the suffering of this section of society, simply does not have the resources and the administrative capacity to fulfil its obligations in regards to reaching out to all the people needing help and relief.

However, it is pertinent to point out that it was not lacking in the commitment to save the lives of the people. It has taken all the required administrative measures, mobilised the health service and facilities at its command to contain the virus, set up an effective mechanism to update the people on the emerging situation and is continuously putting out instructions regarding preventive measures that the people need to take to supplement the efforts of the government.