ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said Pakistan may witness the hardest period of coronavirus in May this year.
Speaking during telethon live telecast for fundraising for deserving people in the country, PM Imran said “Never the world has ever witnessed a virus which spreads which such a speed.” He was flanked by a large number of TV anchors and government officials on this occasion. TV, film and sports celebrities, philanthropists and owners and chief executives of big companies phoned and assured of their support and funds in this regard. The program will culminate with supplication by Maulana Tariq Jameel.
PM Imran Khan asked people to offer prayer at home during Ramadan and avoid going out unnecessarily. Alhamdulillah, coronavirus cases in Pakistan had been reported less than predicted, he said.
“Pakistan was expecting 50,000 infection cases until now, but Alhamdulillah cases are far less than expected,” he said.
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He said the nation would have to see great trouble if the cases spiked. He stressed on maintaining social distancing and adopting precautionary measures.
“Situation is most likely to deteriorate in slum areas as they would suffer the most due to lockdown. The entire nation will have to take precaution to escape from coronavirus,” he said.
The prime minister said Ehsaas program was completely transparent. Most of the amount under Ehsaas was spent in Sindh as the province was more poor. He said there was no political influence in the program.
“We have to reduce troubles of people as well along curing coronavirus. We don’t have so much resources that we impose complete lockdown. Western countries are themselves going towards smart lockdown,” he said adding that there was no sense of imposing lockdown on cart vendors.
He said the US President was also concerned about deterioration of economic situation.
Imran said Pakistan did not have so much resources that it could impose complete lockdown, “you are responsible to provide food to everyone while taking such actions”.