Shehbaz floats four-pronged strategy to fight coronavirus in Pakistan

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif has proposed a four-pronged strategy to tackle coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Speaking here on Tuesday, Shehbaz laid out the strategy, which proposes a comprehensive plan and implementation mechanism to address issues related to healthcare, economy, social awareness and media to stop the spread of the fatal virus.

Shehbaz pointed out that even in such critical circumstances a health regulatory body was absent in the country. He said the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council must be restored with immediate effect in line with the court orders. He pointed out that caution and care were the only remedies against this pandemic as there still wasn’t any vaccine available for its treatment. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan must call a meeting of the Council of Common Interests and launch a coordinated fight against the disease.

He proposed formation of a national taskforce consisting of representatives of all political parties. A thorough and state of the art screening, testing and isolation/quarantine and treatment facilities must be set up at all borders, airports and entrance and exit points in the country, he said. He said this measure was absolutely essential to ensure that Taftaan like lapses are not repeated. He said a pragmatic assessment should be done immediately with the help of experts so that extent of challenge is known and corresponding steps are taken. He said that virus hotspots must be identified through this assessment to boost effectiveness of containment measures. Geotagging of those infected must be done, he added.