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Showing posts from March, 2020
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Lockdowns may not be enough in themselves: some policy prescriptions for governments in Pakistan By Lalarukh Ejaz Pakistan has over 1,100 coronavirus cases as of the writing of this piece. And the numbers could be 5-10 times higher than that because not enough people are being tested. However, given Pakistan's scant resources spent on health, the future could be frightening, not least because there doesn't seem to be much testing going on. Because of scarce resources like test kits, provincial governments in Pakistan have focussed for the timebeing on testing those who had a specific travel history (China, Pakistan, Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Italy, UK, etc). The provincial governments and nor the federal government has been really forthcoming on the matter of testing - and it would be fair to assume that even now when cases have crossed 1,100, testing is being done for those with a travel history, their contacts, or those who have been in contact with someone who tested po...