ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday defended the government’s decision to lift the Covid-19-induced lockdown saying that the novel coronavirus was here to stay and the nation would have to learn to live with it. He also stressed the need for allowing public transport vehicles to operate again to facilitate the poor, adding that the federal government was trying to reach a consensus with the provinces on the matter.
In a televised news conference with members of his economic and healthcare teams, the premier urged the medical community, which has been severely critical of the government’s decision to ease restrictions and allow businesses to reopen amid the rising number of Covid-19 infections, to take into consideration that the country could not afford an indefinite lockdown.
“The lockdown has affected 150 million people in the country. We can impose a lockdown to contain the virus but will that stop it?” he said.
The prime minister added that if someone could say with certainty that a lockdown for three months would defeat the virus, the government would have gone ahead with the move.
“But scientists say that there will be no vaccine [for the virus] this year. We will have to learn to live with it.”
The prime minister assured doctors and paramedics that the government realised the pressure they were facing amid the pandemic, especially the how the safety of their families and children was at risk.
“We are aware that the medical community is alarmed over the move to ease restrictions but it is important it understands how a country must tackle a problem of this magnitude, the decisions that need to be made and their repercussions on the society,” he added.
PM Imran also asked the medical community to look at the cases of China, South Korea and other countries where new clusters of the virus had emerged.
Govt to gradually ease lockdown: PM Imran
He also requested them to compare Pakistan’s economy with that of developed countries. “They [developed countries] have announced economic stimulus packages worth hundreds of billions of dollars, but we have only managed to allocate $8 billion for this purpose.”
Citing statistics of labour force survey carried out in 2017-18, the premier said there were 25 million people daily-wage earners in the country.
“These people were forced to stay at home during the lockdown with no means to earn a livelihood,” he noted.
The prime minister further said the government was prepared to deal with a spike in coronavirus cases and working on building the country’s healthcare capacity.
“Although the cases are still less than the projected figure of 52,000, the numbers are likely to continue increasing,” he added.
“It is estimated that four in every hundred people infected by the virus will need to be admitted to hospital. This will increase the pressure on hospitals and the government is preparing to deal with the situation.”
The premier said cash handouts to people who had lost their jobs because of the lockdown would start from Monday.
The money for the cash handouts would be provided from the PM’s Corona Relief Fund.
PM Imran maintained that despite facing a financial crunch, the government had facilitated the poor and carried out measures which other countries could not manage to take.
He mentioned the Ehsaas emergency cash programme under which Rs12,000 had been distributed to deserving families “We distributed Rs12,000 through Ehsaas but how long can we continue doing this? How long will the sum of Rs12,000 fulfil their needs?”
