Coronavirus, a horrible disease that emerged from the Wuhan city of China back in December 2019, has now affected more than 180 countries leaving behind its horrors, with yet no apparent signs of its vaccine to let earth take a break from this pandemic. Pakistan is also among one of those countries to have been badly affected by Coronavirus. Poor healthcare system of the country has made tackling this deadly disease even more difficult and challenging for the government.
Government authorities are probably doing all what they can with limited resources in hand. They have also taken unprecedented steps to counter the outspread of COVID-19, but it remains unclear whether if these measures will be enough to control the outbreak in masses or not. It is often feared that once if the situation further deteriorates, it will not be possible for government to deal with such a situation without paying a heavy price for it.
Not only the public or a common man, but our doctors, nurses and paramedical staff are also at the potential risk of coronavirus due to lack of enough available facilities. Numbers of healthcare workers testing positive for coronavirus is also increasing day by day largely. Inability of Pakistan’s healthcare system is putting their lives in danger, as healthcare workers, particularly in remote areas, are not being provided with the due facilities, especially the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to treat the COVID-19 patients.
At the moment, limited healthcare resources is a major worrying sign for Pakistan. Today we are realizing this harsh reality quite very well that how important it was to have a better healthcare infrastructure with a considerable budget for this sector which unfortunately, has always been very limited and lesser in former years.
In Pakistan, dealing with the localized epidemics such as Hepatitis C & Dengue Fever have always remained a hectic job for our healthcare sector. With ongoing crisis in full swing, it is obviously difficult to calculate the actual impact of Coronavirus that how long it drags us down. The bottom line is the fact that the coronavirus outbreak is happening and to date, the numbers are growing and do not look in control.
Such pandemics expose the bitter reality and incompetence of authorities to deal with such health crisis. Outbreak of coronavirus in Pakistan has portrayed the inabilities of our healthcare infrastructure and eventually exposed the successive governments for their stakes towards the poverty, healthcare and social protection. Keeping in view the underlying vulnerabilities, only thing we can do are the timely actions we can take to handle the crisis appropriately.
It yet remains to be seen that how will government deal with growing numbers of coronavirus cases, how it will mitigate the loss of life and economic hardships. Will it succeed in tackling COVID-19 challenge? Will the massive interventions government has taken be enough? We shall have the answers to many of such questions in coming weeks and months.
