Facebook page by the name “Corona recovered warriors”, is providing hope to many critical patients by connecting them with recovered patients for plasma donation. The founder of the page, Zoraiz Riaz, a graduate of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), has used the social media platform to help users find relevant medicines, injections and guidelines by authorized doctors.
While Prime Minister Imran Khan ruled out chances of another countrywide lockdown, Pakistan on Friday witnessed the highest number of cases in last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 91,456. A record 5000 new cases and almost 100 deaths were reported, the highest in the country since the first case emerged on February 27th. Total fatalities have now exceeded 1800.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked Pakistan to freeze all major non-development expenditures heads, including salaries and defence, in order to bring down primary deficit. The IMF staff proposed Pakistan to to undertake massive fiscal adjustments of Rs1,150 billion to bring down primary deficit at negative 0.4 percent of GDP for the upcoming budget 2020-21 post COVID-19 pandemic.
Rapidly and exponentially increasing Coronavirus in Pakistan has surpassed China after reporting almost 5000 cases in last 24 hours. The total number of cases in the country made 83,292 mark against China’s 83,021 cases. So far, there are total 1,729 deaths in the country. As many as 76 new death occurred due to the deadly virus. Almost 30,000 people have recovered from the infectious disease.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Security Division and Strategic Policy Planning, Dr. Moeed Yusuf has said that passengers entering Pakistan are no longer required to be put under mandatory 48 hours quarantine. The two weeks quarantine period was reduced to 48 hours to facilitate more citizens. The passengers will now be tested on their arrival and sent home to self isolate.
Qatar Airways has reportedly suspended its flight operations temporarily in Pakistan, leaving many travelers clueless. The flight operations were to resume on June 1, after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had granted special permission to the Doha-based airline for landing in Pakistan. Reasons for suspension however, remain unknown. Travelers complain that the airline’s counters on airport are deserted and call center is non responsive.
Rapidly rising COVID-19 cases in Pakistan means the country is headed towards the third phase, known as the ‘Lag Phase,’ claimed Pakistan Infection Control Society president Prof Rafiq Khanani. Lag Phase is characterized by an exponential increase in number of cases. With the public exhibiting constant carelessness towards SOPs and a weak healthcare system, Pakistan would continue to witness severity in the pandemic until September.
Two officials of the Pakistani High Commission in Delhi were expelled by India, after being accused of espionage by Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Abid Hussain Abid, 42, an assistant in the Pakistani mission, and Mohammad Tahir Khan, 44, a clerk, were accused of obtaining documents about the Indian security establishment from a local person. Pakistan as was quick to reject the claims as “false and unsubstantiated”.
Pakistan is looking to remove the ban on the export of COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) this week. This will allow local manufacturers to export COVID-19 related material overseas. Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry took to Twitter to announce this. It was also announced that Pakistan has received a large number of orders for face masks from different parts of the world including the US, Canada, and Europe.
Pakistan along with Russia and Mexico accounted for almost half of global Facebook content removal requests. A total of 15,826 content restrictions were made by Facebook globally during July-December 2019. Facebook restricted 2,300 items within Pakistan (the second highest after Russia with 2,900 pieces removed) during the second half of 2019. In the first half, Pakistan had reported the highest volume of content (31 per cent) to Facebook.