Pakistan prepares to ease coronavirus curbs with infections below projections
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Saturday
January 28, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2023
Pakistan prepares to ease coronavirus curbs with infections below projections

Coronavirus chronicle

Reuters
29 April, 2020, 08:35 pm
Last modified: 29 April, 2020, 08:39 pm

Related News

  • IMF announces visit to crisis-hit Pakistan
  • Pakistan's cenbank foreign reserves fall $923 mln to $3.68 bln -statement
  • Power surge crashes Pakistan grid, plunging millions into darkness
  • Pakistan ready to take back plots, cut salaries of govt employees
  • Pakistan seeks US help in unlocking $1.1 billion IMF loan - Dawn

Pakistan prepares to ease coronavirus curbs with infections below projections

The South Asian nation, which has registered more than 15,000 cases of Covid-19 including 335 deaths, has already granted exemptions to dozens of sectors to open up over the last few days

Reuters
29 April, 2020, 08:35 pm
Last modified: 29 April, 2020, 08:39 pm
Pakistan's Planing Minister Asad Umar, along with health officials address a briefing, following the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), at the National Command and Control Centre in Islamabad, Pakistan April 29, 2020. REUTERS/Gibran Peshimam
Pakistan's Planing Minister Asad Umar, along with health officials address a briefing, following the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), at the National Command and Control Centre in Islamabad, Pakistan April 29, 2020. REUTERS/Gibran Peshimam

Pakistan is preparing to loosen coronavirus lockdown restrictions as the number of infections and deaths are well below previous projections, officials said on Wednesday.

The South Asian nation, which has registered more than 15,000 cases of Covid-19 including 335 deaths, has already granted exemptions to dozens of sectors to open up over the last few days.

"The mortality numbers are nowhere near the same as we see in other countries," Planning Minister Asad Umar, who oversees the response to the virus, told journalists.

He said infections and deaths in Pakistan were lower 30-35 percent lower than projections and, if things remained this way, the country could open up further in coming days.

Experts say Pakistan's low numbers are due to limited testing. Currently Pakistan, a country of more than 207 million people, conducts about 8,000 tests a day.

On Tuesday, the country registered 800 positive cases and 26 deaths - the highest number of deaths in a single day. Experts and officials say infections will peak in mid-May.

Umar said that despite the rising numbers, the disease was under control, but the economic cost had been "tremendous" as revenues and exports had been hit during a month-long lockdown.

The IMF has projected that Pakistan's economy will contract 1.5 percent this financial year.

Pakistan a few days ago launched a new "Test, Trace and Quarantine" system, which officials say will allow it to steadily open up commercial and industrial activities over the next few weeks without risking further infections.

Officials at the briefing did admit there remained areas of concern - particularly the high incidence of infections in health workers. Zafar Mirza, the top health official, said at least 480 health workers, including doctors, had been infected.

He added that because of the lockdown and the focus on the coronavirus, a number of other health programmes, such an anti-polio campaign, had been affected.

Pakistan has also removed restrictions on congregations at mosques for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, leading doctors to raise the alarm on the risk of mass infections.

But Mirza said safety procedures for mosque gatherings had been worked out between the government and clerics.

Pakistan

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Good at ducking.Photographer: David Hecker/Getty Images
    Forget 'autonomy': Europe needs the US as much as ever
  • Photo: TBS
    TBS roundtable: Prominent businessmen want long-term crisis management framework for energy security
  • Photo: BBC
    Hubble telescope captures supermassive black hole eating a star

MOST VIEWED

  • People walk with their luggage at a railway station during the annual Spring Festival travel rush ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues, in Shanghai, China January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Aly Song
    Holiday trips within China surge after lifting of Covid curbs
  • Photo: Collected
    India launches world’s 1st intranasal Covid vaccine
  • A vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) booster vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub variants is pictured at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah Beier
    US CDC still looking at potential stroke risk from Pfizer bivalent Covid shot
  •  A medical worker checks the IV drip treatment of a patient lying on a bed in the emergency department of a hospital, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Shanghai, China, January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Staff
    China says Covid deaths down by nearly 80 percent
  • Sean Bagley, 14, receives the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) booster vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub variants at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah Beier
    Updated Covid vaccines prevented illness from latest variants -CDC
  • People embrace at the international arrivals gate at Beijing Capital International Airport after China lifted the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) quarantine requirement for inbound travellers in Beijing, China January 8, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
    China says peak Covid infections exceeded 7 million daily, deaths more than 4,000 daily

Related News

  • IMF announces visit to crisis-hit Pakistan
  • Pakistan's cenbank foreign reserves fall $923 mln to $3.68 bln -statement
  • Power surge crashes Pakistan grid, plunging millions into darkness
  • Pakistan ready to take back plots, cut salaries of govt employees
  • Pakistan seeks US help in unlocking $1.1 billion IMF loan - Dawn

Features

Snipe in flight. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Baikka Beel: 'A world where snipe work late'

6h | Panorama
Photo: Noor-A-Alam

Pet cafes: Where love for food and animals cohabit

8h | Food
Illustration: TBS

How MFS is turbocharging national economy

11h | Thoughts
Now is the time to focus on FDI composition

Now is the time to focus on FDI composition

13h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

2h | TBS Entertainment
15 Reasons Your Entrepreneurial Career Can Fail

15 Reasons Your Entrepreneurial Career Can Fail

1h | TBS Career
Women are going to make history in match management in cricket

Women are going to make history in match management in cricket

10m | TBS SPORTS
Gold covered mummy discovered in Egypt

Gold covered mummy discovered in Egypt

6h | TBS World

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 
Bangladesh

Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 

3
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

4
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

5
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]