Pakistan cannot afford another lockdown: Imran Khan

Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday warned that lockdown can be imposed in hotspots of coronavirus to lower the spread of the virus.

Prime Minister said that the country cannot afford to go back towards a lockdown, urging the public to follow the government's standard operating procedures (SOPs) for curbing the spread of the virus.

"It is important for you to ensure that people follow SOPs because we can't go back to lockdown, this country cannot afford it," he said while addressing the volunteers of the Corona Relief Tiger Force. "If we can slow down the curve because of SOPs, it will reduce pressure on hospitals."

Prime Minister Imran Khan also said that country may face food shortage due to locust attack.

The PM stated that the difficult decision of easing up the restrictions on Eid was taken only to give economic relief to daily wagers and underprivileged who could have died due to hunger and food shortage.

The PM added that the only logical and easiest way to defeat Corona is to follow the SOPs and the civil and district administration is overburdened therefore it is the duty of Corona Tiger Force to ensure the implementation of SOPs.

He asked the Corona Tigers to become a helping hand towards the nation.

The Prime Minister added that despite limited financial resources, the Ehsas programme is been considered as a perfect case study for helping the underprivileged class of the country.

“The Ehsas programme has been recognized by the Asian Development Bank (ADP) for effectively developing a data bank and then distributing millions of rupees to the families.”

He added that the country was already emerging from a difficult situation before the pandemic hit. "How much more money can Ehsaas give? That is why important for you to ensure the implementation of SOPs," he said.

The PM also paid rich tribute to all health care professionals who have been frontline warriors and real heroes against the coronavirus.

Prime Minister Imran Khan directed the volunteers of the Corona Relief Tiger Force to keep a close eye on utility stores, in an effort to keep the prices of food items from skyrocketing.

"Transport services were shut down due to the lockdown and food prices skyrocketed as a result. However, we kept up supply to utility stores and got some very good feedback about the work the volunteer force was doing."

He urged the volunteers to identify hoarders and inform the district administration.  The premier added that the force's services will also be enlisted to help the country with the current locust invasion to assist the government in its tree plantation project.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the main objective of the Corona Relief Tiger Force is to create awareness among the public. "The virus will spread, you can't stop that. You can look people up in their rooms and that would slow the spread but it will not end it."

Prime Minister Imran said that none of the country's coronavirus cases was traced back to mosques, despite the government's critics stating otherwise.

"We were the only country in the Muslim world that said we would not bar Taraweehs and would keep mosques open. We decided that whoever goes there will have to follow SOPs."

The premier quoted the example of Sialkot. "There weren't enough police officials in Sialkot to stop the public from going to mosques so our tiger force went and raised awareness.

"Our critics said that the virus will spread from mosques but we did not see any cases emerge from there and today the world is opening mosques with standard operating procedures in place. This was an achievement for the force."