WHILE it is fortunate that there is a marked improvement in the Covid-19 situation, the NCOC has thought it fit to extend the restrictions in the case of cities with a positivity rate of over 10pc. The cities include Karachi, Hyderabad, Gilgit, Muzaffarabad, Mardan and Peshawar. Among the other curbs it has announced, the NCOC has banned indoor dining and contact sports, while allowing public places including shrines, cinemas and gyms to operate at 50pc of their capacity — and only for those who have received their full dose of the Covid vaccine. The return to normality will depend to a large extent on following SOPS and receiving vaccinations, including booster shots, that the government has been stressing on for so long.

Even as we wait to return to a pre-Covid world, or embrace a new normality, opinions on the duration of the pandemic have been mixed. While a drop in infection rates has been witnessed in several countries in the most recent wave, and there are hopes that the pandemic is in its final stages, some scientists have raised the alarm. According to an infectious disease expert quoted by the Guardian a few days ago, “The idea that virus variants will continue to get milder is wrong. A new one could turn out to be even more pathogenic than the Delta variant, for example”. Perhaps it would be wise not to get our hopes up too much at this point. Apart from continuing with the Covid drill, we should also plan ahead. A look at all that has been adversely affected during the pandemic should lead to coordinated planning by the centre and the provinces in order to evolve strategies for safer living during the pandemic, and at minimal socioeconomic cost. Healthcare resources have been stretched thin, children have not been able to go to school, and jobs have been lost. A government that cares for its people will treat these hard times as lessons to be learned, and resolve to overcome its losses.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2022