Second lockdown amid COVID-19 resurgence in Pakistan 'inevitable'

LAHORE: A second nationwide lockdown could be on the cards for Pakistan if Covid-19 cases continue to spike, health officials have warned.

Director of General Health Services Islamabad Dr Hassan Orooj, while speaking to Geo News, said that the second lockdown now seems "inevitable"

According to Geo News, Pakistan imposed a lockdown on March 24 and 21 days later, the government eased the restrictions but cases continued to spike across the country.

Pakistan on Sunday reported 1,123 new COVID-19 cases in a single day -- the highest in three months. It was further reported that the tally is similar to numbers recorded in late April and early May when the first lockdown was already in place.

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Faisal Sultan, the special assistant to the prime minister on health, in an interview with Dawn TV, said that the country is facing a second wave of COVID-19. "The second wave is here in Pakistan," he said, as quoted by Geo News. "The trends are not very good."

"Pakistan has been in the second wave for quite some time now," Orooj explained, "Take Islamabad: the cases jumped from 30 on October 1 to 250 on October 31."

Separately, Pakistan's positivity rate has also registered a steady increase. On Sunday, the positivity rate was 4.02 per cent, as per the official tally.

However, Orooj said that the positivity rate is not the only indicator to take into consideration when deciding on a lockdown.

"The trends are also very important... If the cases are increasing by leaps and bounds but the positivity remains low due to Pakistan's large population then that is a statistical problem. If the cases are increasing three-folds or five-folds in 15-20 days then you have a case for a second lockdown."

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