Pakistan considering ‘city wise lockdown’ for two-weeks as COVID-19 third wave intensifies

According to an official notification, titled 'Input / Feedback — City Wise Lockdown', National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) stated that a two-week city-wise lockdown in cities with high disease prevalence is tentatively planned with effect from 2/3 May.

“Therefore, you are requested to carry out necessary planning at your end,” read notification.

A day prior, NCOC wrote letters to the provincial governments asking them to prepare for a two-week lockdown in 20 cities from May.

The list mentioned 20 cities where the lockdown is being planned includes Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Hyderabad, Peshawar, Dir Lower, Mardan, Nowshera, Malakand, Charsadda, Swat, Swabi, Muzaffarabad, Sudhnuti, Poonch and Bagh.

Reportedly, all activities will be banned across the province from 6:00 pm to Sehri, whereas, the complete holiday will be observed on Saturday and Sunday (weekends) and the restrictions are being put in place that would be effective till May 17.

In wake of deadly third wave of Covid-19, all business activities will be closed on weekends. However, petrol pumps, medical stores, and vaccination centers will be exempted from the restrictions.

Moreover, office timings will be 9:00 am to 2:00 pm across the province.

The provincial government imposed a strict ban on all gyms, cinema halls

To contain the spread of global outbreak, the government allowed public transport to resume the facility for citizens with 50 percent of capacity and inter-provincial transport will be completed closed on Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, today Pakistan recorded 201 coronavirus-linked fatalities, country’s highest single-day death toll since May 2020, as the country continued to deal with the third wave of Covid-19.

As per NCOC, around 5,292 cases of coronavirus were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 17,530. The total number of confirmed cases reached to 810,231.

As many as 704,494 patients have recovered from the disease with 5,214 critical cases.