Since the emergence of COVID-19 virus in the Wuhan City of China at the end of December 2019, there is a lot of uncertainty throughout the world. This virus spread rapidly in China and then worldwide in 209 countries of America, Europe, Australia and Asia including Pakistan. There are more than fifty thousand mortalities and one million plus people have been affected worldwide, while figure keep on increasing rapidly.
Different steps have been taken worldwide for the control of COVID-19. Even with limited resources, Pakistan also took rigorous measures like designing of special hospitals, establishment of laboratories for testing, quarantine facilities, awareness campaign and country wide lock down to control the spread of virus.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday warned of a looming “second wave” of the Covid-19 pandemic in country and advised the countrymen to wear face masks in public to prevent virus from spreading in winter. While Imran Khan appealed to citizens to take precautionary measures, the government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir decided to impose lockdown again to prevent the second wave of the pandemic. In a tweet, the Prime Minister Imran Khan said there is a fear that onset of winter could result in second wave of coronavirus. He said as compared to some other states, Allah has been kind to us in Pakistan and spared us from the worst effects of COVID-19. Imran Khan urged everyone to wear face masks in public to avoid a spike and said all offices and educational institutions must ensure that masks are worn.
On the other hand, Azad Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to impose lockdown again to prevent the second wave of coronavirus in the region. Karachi is also under mini lockdown. The number of cases has dropped from nearly 7,000 to merely 400 plus daily cases in the past few months, with daily fatalities hovering in the single digits each day. However, the country reported 752 new virus cases in the past 24 hours, following the reopening of schools earlier this week. This is the highest figure in the last month-and-a-half. The country has recorded 304,386 cases, of which 291,683 have recovered, according to Health Ministry data. The number of fatalities stands at 6,408.
The is also a surge in COVID-19 cases in countries like India, UK and Sri Lanka. It is anticipated that UK could witness about 50,000 new coronavirus cases a day by mid-October. This would be anticipated to lead to about 200 deaths per day a month after that. In the last ten days of September, 3,899 daily cases and 18 deaths were reported in the UK. At the moment it is believed that the epidemic is to be doubled around every seven days. This requires speed and action in order to be able to bring that down.
Where is COVID-19 vaccine?
Research centers and drug makers around the world are working on Covid-19 vaccines, with large global trials of several of the candidates involving tens of thousands of participants well underway. As some companies close in on unveiling their initial findings — with Canadian and European regulators already reviewing early data on some vaccines. It is attainable that some vaccine could be available before the end of the year in little amounts for precise groups but the first six months of next year is not predicted.
by: Abeer Arshad
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