Six months after the pandemic began, Pakistan appears to have dodged the worst times, health experts fear that in crowded urban areas and ramshackle hospitals will be overrun.

After an initial surge, the number of infections has plummeted in recent weeks, with Covid-19 deaths hovering in the single digits each day while neighbouring India tallies hundreds of fatalities.

In the past, Pakistan has been failing to contain myriad infectious diseases such as polio, tuberculosis, and hepatitis.

Mostly public live in crowded, multi-generational homes or packed apartment buildings that eases the way for virus transmission.

“No one has been able to explain this decline… We don’t have any concrete explanation,” said Dr. Salman Haseeb, a doctor at Services Hospital in the eastern city of Lahore.