This article aims to highlight the healthcare issues raised by COVID-19 in Pakistan’s scenario. Initially, Pakistan lacked “standard operating procedures,” and the government had to ship testing kits from China and Japan. Moreover, due to violations of the lockdown and standard operating procedures (SOPs), the rapidly increasing number of cases created a burden on the healthcare system. More and more, this pandemic and its impact have grown. As vaccine development has not been successful yet, “herd immunity” can only be achieved if about three quarters of the population contract the virus—requiring immunocompromised citizens to be sacrificed for the sake of the country. Moreover, Pakistan has limited testing capacity, so most COVID-19 tests are missing their mark even as the virus spreads. The current scenario is also raising several concerns about the capacity of the government to tackle the prevailing healthcare crisis. In this regard, healthcare professionals suggest that the government must act responsibly to ensure better security provided to healthcare professionals. Identifying suspected cases, introducing personal protective equipment, and taking administrative measures to ensure that better security is provided to healthcare professionals are the needs of the hour to improve outcomes of COVID-19 patients. Testing, tracking, and lockdowns must be focused on areas where clusters are detected. The healthcare professionals must be given utmost protection before this pandemic could wreak havoc in terms of fatalities. Investing in the chronically underfunded healthcare system is needed, so that Pakistan can build capacity to fight the pandemic.
The new strain of the coronavirus, which is causing the current pandemic, is called COVID-19. The Chinese authorities distinguished this strain of the virus on 7 January 2020 (World Health Organization 2020a). It started to spread globally from country to country (World Health Organization 2020b) and the cases were expanding day by day (Prompetchara et al. 2020). As of June 2020, there are no successful vaccines (Ahmed et al. 2020; Prompetchara et al. 2020) and no drug treatment is specifically recommended (Sanders et al. 2020). However, convalescent plasma transfusion can be a potential treatment, but it is in experimental stages (Chen et al. 2020).
Preventive measures are highly effective to prevent its rapid spread but for these to be helpful, influential policies must be taken for appropriate health education of people. This pandemic has severely affected some countries and their healthcare systems have reached the point of exhaustion. Amid the chaos and the rising human toll, healthcare services are undergoing decentralization and fragmentation in many severely affected countries (Boccia et al. 2020). Vulnerable communities are disproportionately impacted in this catastrophic situation. This pandemic is relentless. In a crisis-stricken world gripped by challenges, it has exposed the vulnerabilities of the global capitalist system, driven by the delayed response (Yang and Wang 2020). An avalanche of cases has overburdened healthcare structures in developed countries. In developing nations with long neglected and underfunded public health sectors, the pandemic is leading to mayhem (Gates 2020). Experts fear if its spread is not curtailed by taking bold steps and consistent management choices, it may result in unprecedented human catastrophe (Prompetchara et al. 2020). The 2019–2020 COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across Pakistan in February 2020. This paper provides an account of the governmental and institutional response to COVID-19 in Pakistan. It explains some of the severe economic and social constraints that have hindered an effective response, and it critically analyzes the policy of pursuing herd immunity. The paper ends with some key take-home messages about lessons to be learned from Pakistan’s experience.
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