Daily Times

It’s no surprise really that the novel coronavirus continues to spread around the world since no vaccine has yet been found to treat it. But the speed with which infections have crossed the one million mark globally, with deaths already numbering more than 55,000, is startling to say the least. And it is no less intriguing that the worst outbreaks have come in countries with some of the best equipped healthcare systems in the world. China, where it all began, is now only a marginal player. But that, too, is because of the extraordinary way in which the country was able to implement a complete shutdown in Wuhan.

Yet that reflects only half a victory for the Middle Kingdom, though a very important one. And now that the lockdown has been lifted somewhat and Wuhan is slowly being allowed to come back to life, there has been the rather disturbing incidence of some people catching the virus again. No doubt, then, that the problem will not go away completely till the most important fight is won in the laboratory. The best that can be done in the meantime is keeping people tucked away safely and arranging enough money for economies to keep functioning. That is where China had an advantage over some other countries; though not America. Being the second biggest economy in the world it was able to afford a stricter lockdown than most other countries.

However, even having the biggest and most powerful economy in the world has not helped the Americans weather this storm too well. Perhaps if President Trump hadn’t rubbished legitimate concerns initially, and taken preventive measures in time, American might not have become the new hotbed of the deadly virus. Yet these matters are best left for history to decide. For the moment, the fight must go on. And it has been a relatively easier fight in Pakistan than most other countries. Still, the government fears that the number of cases in the country might well rise to 50,000 by the end of April. Even though the number is not as large as elsewhere at present (2,714 at the time of writing), and there are very few deaths (40 so far), the rate of new cases is something of a concern. And clearly we won’t be able to enforce the lockdown for too long because Pakistan has one of the most fragile economies in the world. It’s a small miracle, really, that the government was even able to throw approximately $8 billion into a relief fund at this time. With more than one million infections globally and still counting, surely there’s little option for everybody than to just stay hunkered down and wait for this to pass. *