- Tigers, like other cats, can catch coronavirus
After wasting weeks in hemming and hawing over the situation created by COVID-19, the PM has finally concluded that what he has in hand is a hot potato. He seems to believe now that the disease might not feel like mild flu, and much more is needed to deal with it than waiting for the approaching hot and dry weather or relying on the country’s sizeable youth force and people’s unlimited faith in the Almighty. While a few weeks earlier he took solace from the idea that only four to five percent of people would need to visit hospitals, he now fears that the existing facilities might fall short.
It is not enough to suddenly wake up and say the virus situation can worsen in coming days. Instead of being told that there is problem ahead, what the people expect from a PM is to be told the way the government intends to tackle it. In case they are convinced that the remedy being suggested sounds sensible they would generally bite the bullet. The PM however is still trailing behind events without a plan.
After taking lightly the advice to conduct mass tests for weeks, the government has belatedly decided to expand the tests from 3,000 to 25,000 a day by the end of the month, besides increasing the number of testing laboratories. The PM however still remains wedded to the idea that lockdowns are not practical because unlike China the government lacks the capacity to reach out to the millions who would become jobless. Political exigencies stop the PTI administration from using the local governments which are the most effective vehicle to locate and approach those in need of help.
The PM however wants to make political capital out of coronavirus by deploying untrained youth carrying the party’s trademark of corona tigers, thus exposing them to disease.
In regions like FATA having no Internet facility or far flung areas of Balochistan, KP or Sindh where many lack access to mobile phones, the only credible way to provide both funds or food is through local bodies. Most of all the people want the PM to play a leadership role rather than act as a straggler in the fight against coronavirus.
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