THE ongoing Covid pandemic has affected the social and economic aspects of life around the globe. Despite the continuous advancement of different vaccines, the threat has been immense.

Moreover, owing to a certain incubation period, the one exposed to the virus usually transmits it to the non-infected well before testing positive.

In view of silent but quick transmission and the absence of any cure, it has been tricky to tackle the coronavirus. In order to minimise the associated adversities, many indirect measures have been taken along with the improvement in treatment strategies in different countries.

These include proper awareness drives regarding use of masks, social distancing, isolation, etc. The significance of the adopted strategies is critical in societies with weak healthcare systems, like Pakistan.

An effective strategy to control the spread at a large level is the imposition of lockdowns. In general, it may reduce the burden on the weak healthcare system. Nevertheless, complete lockdowns have their own shortcomings in struggling economies, as is the case with Pakistan.

Smart lockdowns, as such, represent a practical solution which has proved to be successful in the developed countries.

A logically-designed lockdown strategy, such as ‘intelligent smart lockdown’ consisting of components such as smart lockdown, educating people, promoting e-commerce, etc., may control people’s activities and travel behaviour so that the spread of the virus may be considerably reduced.

The assessment of people’s response to these strategies and their consequences may lead to improvement as far as the structural changes regarding the implementation are concerned.

Intikhab Ulfat
Karachi

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EVER since the Covid vaccination drive began about five months ago, a miniscule percentage of the national population has been vaccinated. The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) in Islamabad and the Sindh government now want the massive majority of the population to get vaccinated within days.

At the pace the vaccination drive has moved thus far, it would take years to get the entire population vaccinated. How can it be done in a matter of days? And if that is not possible even for the government itself, what is the point of announcing restrictions beyond Aug 31?

The government has already imposed a ban on air travel for the unvaccinated. There will be a ban on train travel as well from Oct 1, and a ban on inter-provincial travel is also said to be in the offing. Other threats include blocking cellphone connections and bank accounts.

Unfortunately, the national media has not raised a lot of pertinent questions in this regard. Maybe the chief justice would have to intervene to give citizens some relief.

Sajid Mahmood Ansari
Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2021