Prime Minister Imran Khan said Monday the lockdown restrictions imposed in the country will be lifted gradually in order to put the economy back on track.
“We are doing [lifting lockodwn] because the people are suffering and losing their jobs. But if SOPs are not followed we fear that it might spread rapidly and we will be forced to move towards a lockdown once again,” the premier warned.
“All the big problems that we have today have emerged from lockdown,” he said, adding: “This has impacted local vendors and the white-collar workers as well.”
PM Imran, explaining the impact of the virus across the world, said: “Our country was already poor, but it [coronavirus] even hit rich countries, such as the UK, hard.”
“In UK even more than 250,000 people registered themselves to volunteer after their prime minister requested […] We [Centre] are launching the Corona Tiger Force as the concept is not uncommon,” he said.
“The administration alone cannot handle it [the coronavirus crisis], hence we needed a volunteer force,” he added.
“In the coming days as our Testing, Tracing, and Quarantine strategy spreads, these medical workers will play a pivotal role,” SAPM Zafar Mirza said.
The nationwide tally of Covid-19 patients stands at 20,995 with 7,646 cases in Punjab, 7,882 in Sindh, 3,288 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 1,321 in Balochistan, 372 in Gilgit-Baltistan, 415 in Islamabad and 71 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The virus has claimed at least 476 lives while at least 5,590 coronavirus patients have recovered.
The number of cases has continued to soar despite the country being under lockdown for the sixth consecutive week.
