Coronavirus: Pakistan’s Largest Social Assistance Program Underway as Country Fights the Pandemic

The largest social assistance program in the country’s history was rolled out on Thursday to lessen impact of the virus lockdown on impoverished communities. Under the program, cash handouts worth around Rs 144 billion will be made in a bid to counter the economic fallout of the Covid-19 crisis.

Around 40 million people received text messages for collection of the amount on the first day of cash distribution under the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Program. Up to 17,000 branches of two designated banks – Habib Bank Limited and Bank Al-Falah – are disbursing the payments, in addition to 3,000 camp sites established by provinces.

The virus lockdowns across Pakistan have taken a heavy toll on the earnings of daily-wagers. While a few big industries have been allowed to resume operations, the country largely remains shut adversely affecting the poor. So far, the pandemic has affected over 4,500 in Pakistan while claiming 66 lives as the country exhausts its resources in the fight.

Here are the latest updates:

Qeemat Punjab App free grocery delivery service now available in more cities

Due to the coronavirus lockdown, supply of the food and grocery items across the country has taken a hit. As a result, the shortage of supply has increased the prices of some food items, especially vegetables and fruits in some areas.

The Punjab government has decided to go smart about this situation and bring technology into use.

To ensure that people get what they want at their doorsteps, the Punjab government’s Qeemat App has extended its home delivery service of food and grocery items to several more cities of the province.

The App is now delivering all essential food items free of cost in Lahore, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Chiniot, Rawalpindi, Multan, Gujranwala, and Sahiwal.

Shifa International Hospital starts COVID-19 testing in Islamabad

Shifa International Hospital has become first private sector hospital in Islamabad to offer COVID-19 testing for the public. This also makes the hospital the first private testing facility for Pakistanis in the north region.

According to details available with ProPakistani, the testing facility is separate from the hospital facility and follows all international standards to ensure the safety of staff and the patients from each other.

A Shifa Intentional Spokesperson confirmed the development to ProPakistani and said that the hospital procured sophisticated and authentic fully automated PCR testing by Roche Diagnostic, a US-based company that’s known for developing one of the most authentic machines to test COVID-19.

Punjab to pay Rs1m to family of any journalist who passes away from virus

Punjab Information Minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan has said that the provincial information ministry will pay Rs100,000 to any journalist who contracts Covid-19 while reporting on the situation.

In case a journalist passes away from the virus, the Punjab information ministry will pay Rs1 million to the family of the deceased, he said.

–Dawn

NEW CASES: Sindh 86, Punjab 56

Sindh coronavirus toll has seen an addition of 86 new cases and now stands at 1,214, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah confirms. He added that out of the 586 tests conducted in the past 24 hours, 86 have come positive.

With 56 more cases, Punjab’s tally has now risen to 2,280.

How long will coronavirus lockdowns, travel bans last?

With a vaccine at least a year away, the world faces an uphill battle. Any one country or region’s success in containing the disease is shaky so long as the pathogen continues to sicken people elsewhere.

This all presumes that SARS-CoV-2 remains stable without significant mutations that may make it more virulent. Scientists say the public health threat the virus represents is the most serious seen in a respiratory virus since the 1918 influenza pandemic, in which as many as 100 million people died across the world.

That portends a long period of intermittent lockdowns for the world, with governments tightening and easing controls as infections surge and fall, as well as continued restrictions on international travel, until a vaccine is found or enough of the world’s population develop immunity through infection, a concept known as herd immunity.