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India’s COVID-19 Surge Terrifies Pakistan

By Jalal Baig

A dangerous third wave is threatening an unvaccinated nation.

For Pakistanis, a simple glance across the eastern border is a jarring reminder of how quickly a COVID-19 surge can become an apocalypse. India is now registering more than half of the world’s daily COVID-19 infections—and the real total may be far higher, as many cases and deaths remain uncounted.

India’s second COVID-19 wave has left much of its population breathless and its healthcare system in ashes. There are dire shortages of oxygen, medicine, and hospital beds, while funeral pyres of the dead burn endlessly. “This is not a second wave in India as much as it is a whole new pandemic,” said Zulfiqar Bhutta, the founding director of the Institute for Global Health & Development at Aga Khan University in Karachi.

This is ringing alarm bells in Pakistan, which is also experiencing an uptick in cases. The country had 6,127 infections on April 17, the highest figure since last June 20. While the test positivity rate is very high—a sign of inadequate testing and uncontrolled viral spread—in major cities like Karachi and Lahore, areas throughout Pakistan’s four provinces (such as Gujranwala, Mardan, Hyderabad, and Quetta) are also reporting high rates.

The impact is already obvious. Pakistan’s hospitals are treating more severely ill patients requiring oxygen than at any other point during the pandemic. Another grim milestone was reached on April 27 when a record 201 deaths were registered in a single day. At one point, 90 percent of the country’s oxygen supply was in use.

Pakistan finds itself teetering on the brink as the holy month of Ramadan closes and the Eid al-Fitr holidays approach. Spooked by the daily COVID-19 horror show next door in India, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government is taking preventative measures to curb a cataclysmic third wave. But it faces formidable headwinds: pandemic fatigue, population density, relaxed Ramadan restrictions, contagious variants, limited genomic surveillance capabilities, a glacial vaccine campaign, and a starved healthcare infrastructure. As Federal Minister Asad Umar, who helms the nation’s pandemic response, tweeted on May 8, “Danger is higher than ever and knocking at our doors.”

Unlike much of the world, Pakistan’s first two waves of the pandemic were much milder than experts forecasted. Many theories, none conclusively proven, have emerged on why the country remained mostly unscathed. But India’s story shows the limits of these supposed inherent advantages. “We now know that it was wishful thinking that populations in the subcontinent have some underlying protection from rapid spread and high mortality,” wrote Mishal Khan, an associate professor in the Faculty of Public Health and Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

While Pakistan’s more forgiving first waves spared lives, they also defanged the virus in the minds of the public. A Gallup poll from May 5 found that 64 percent of citizens thought the coronavirus threat was exaggerated. The complacency and outright COVID-19 denial have led many to flout critical and proven public health measures, referred to as Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), such as masking and distancing in all corners of the country. “The average Pakistani is not wearing masks. I was just in Pakistan, and I think one out of ten would wear a mask,” said Ayesha Jalal, a historian and professor at Tufts University. “You’re really rejecting science by not accepting the basics.”

Though the army has been enlisted by the government to aid the police and law enforcement agencies in enforcing SOPs, the religious conservatives remain recalcitrant and unapologetic as mosques teemed with adherents during Ramadan and thousands of people went without masks in Shia religious processions.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/05/13/india-covid-surge-pakistan-unvaccinated/

Pakistan is confused about Thursday Eid. And Fawad Chaudhry is at its centre

 NAILA INAYAT 

Only one politician cares about Pakistanis. And she has said no hugs and kisses, whether Eid is on Thursday or Friday.

Is it Eid, is it not? It can be an accidental Eid, if you please. Who doesn’t like surprises? Apparently all those who expected Eid to fall on Friday. But as the moon would have it, in a late Wednesday night surprise, the Ruet-i-Hilal Committee announced that Eid will be observed all over Pakistan on Thursday.

Most upset were those who had used the milk at home to make curd — how will the meethi seviyan be made for Eid morning now? Then there were others who were still drafting chand raat text messages, only to find out that there is no chand raat anymore. But at least there was one, not two, Eids in Pakistan this time. There is a silver lining after all.

Fawad Chaudhry’s moon math

Every moon sighting has controversies galore. And where there is controversy, there is Fawad Chaudhry. This week, as Pakistan’s information and broadcasting minister, Chaudhry shared his thoughts on the age of the new moon being 13 hours and 42 minutes in Pakistan, and how it was impossible to sight it. He claimed that Eid will fall on Friday, 14 May.

Chaudhry had earlier, as minister for science and technology, worked on a calendar and a digital app that uses scientific ways for moon sighting. But his ways were hardly met with enthusiasm by the clerics running the show. Even Chaudhry’s replacement as science and technology minister, Shibli Faraz, didn’t care much about the moon business. After taking over the reins, he made it clear that his ministry has nothing to do with determining Eid and Roza dates. Like any ministry strictly does what it is supposed to do here.  Chaudhry also suggested on Wednesday that there are people who want to celebrate Eid with Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan, and they should plainly confess it. “Why conclude the holy month with a lie?” he tweeted. Who are these people that the minister refers to — the ones who recently came back from a ‘successful’ visit with pockets full of rice? Or are these the people who are superstitious about Eid falling on a Friday and think it could be a bad omen for the government? 

  The same superstition made military ruler Ayub Khan declare Eid at Sheri time to avoid a Friday Eid because it could lead to ‘trouble’ for him.

No hugs or kisses, just conspiracy

The Ruet-i-Hilal’s announcement came after 11:30 pm on Wednesday — if they had waited, they would have seen the sun too. What matters is that our ruler is safe. The leaked video of a Ruet cleric allegedly saying that there are orders to declare Eid on 13 May was enough to fan the conspiracy of match-fixing. From managing election to managing our moon, they said.

It might have been a late announcement, but it is never too late for the memes. The love-hate fest between Fawad Chaudhry and Ruet-e-Hilal Committee is here to stay. If some suggested Chaudhry wanted a review on the Eid decision, there were others who were convinced that the minister would celebrate Eid in India on 14 May, because he had already given the date. However, nothing else matters when Kashmiris are celebrating with Pakistan.

In the confusion about celebrating Eid or keeping fast, there were those VIPs who were looking for sacrificial animals on Eidul Fitr that isn’t about qurbani. But we do want whatever they were smoking.

There remains only one reliable government official who cares for the people as much as she cares for herself. During this pandemic, it was only advisor to the Punjab chief minister, Firdous Ashiq Awan, who said that there will be no hugs and kisses on Eid. Be it on Thursday or Friday.

https://theprint.in/opinion/letter-from-pakistan/pakistan-is-confused-about-thursday-eid-and-fawad-chaudhry-is-at-its-centre/657614/

Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari greets Muslims on the eve of Eid ul Fitr

“On the auspicious occasion of Eidul Fitr I wish to greet the Muslims throughout the world and of Pakistan in particular and pray for peace and prosperity in Pakistan, peace for the Palestinians and throughout the world.
 
“The Eid celebrations this year must be subdued because of the havoc that has been brought upon the innocent Palestinian men, women and children on the one hand and the havoc caused by pandemic in many regions of the world on the other.
 
“My thoughts go out to the poor who are worst hit by pandemic induced unemployment and inflation and economic mismanagement. On this occasion I urge the affluent to share the joy of Eid with their less fortunate brethren.
 
“Tolerance, humility and a consideration for the less fortunate ones are the values taught by the holy month of Ramazan. The need for imbibing this spirit has never been so great as today.
 

“On this occasion let us also remember the enforcedly disappeared, those incarcerated in internment centres without due process and without trial and the victims of brutalities and injustices whether Muslims or Non Muslims. Our thoughts also go out to those who have laid down their lives in the cause of the country and the cause of peace.

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/24798/