Fig:1. Timeline of COVID-19 in Pakistan
The number of COVID-19 cases keep on rising even after lock down, so, it led to more misconceptions among the people. So, in that current scenario, a leniency in lock down was operated. As a result, total number of COVID-19 cases in Pakistan raised to 4,601 on 10th April, 2020 (Conducted & Cases, 2020). This graph kept on rising from 8,418 cases on 20th April, 2020 to 14,885 cases on 29th April, 2020 (Conducted & Cases, 2020). On 4th May, 2020 situation got worst and COVID-19 patients increased to 20,186, as people did not bother to maintain any precautionary measures due to their misconceptions about COVID-19 (Report, 2020).
On 20th May, 2020, Sindh became most affected province with 17,947 cases and total COVID-19 cases were 45,898 (Plan, 2020). Then the Coronavirus made its biggest hit in Pakistan with total of 69,496 cases on 31stMay, 2020 with a death rate of 2.1% and this situation is getting worst day by day (Report, 2020). On 9th June, 2020 the nationwide tally of COVID-19 patients stood at 108,317 cases and Pakistan became the 14th country to cross 100k COVID-19 cases with death toll troops of 2000 (“JUNE 7: Pakistan Becomes 14th Country to Cross 100k Covid-19 Cases; Death Toll Tops 2,000 | The Express Tribune,” 2020). If this graph keeps on rising, soon Pakistan will leave all the countries behind in COVID-19 race and it could not afford another lock down to control spread of virus due to its disastrous effects on economy. So, spreading awareness is the only strategy that can work if people take it seriously otherwise, all the people should be ready to face a situation worse than any nightmare (Acter et al., 2020).
The delicate health system of Pakistan has braced for the recent imminent COVID-19 peak for the last couple of weeks. Number of cases already surpassed China and many other countries resulting Pakistan at 13th place worldwide for this pandemic. Hospitals of two largest cities of Pakistan, Karachi and Lahore respectively, have already reached their limits. In Karachi, 136 ventilators in 15 government, private and charitable hospitals are dealing with coronavirus patients for the population of 15 million people describe its pitiable situation clearly. Similarly, 539 beds and just 200 ventilators are available in whole Lahore to tackle 11.13 million people. In addition, about 2,200 doctors self-isolated themselves after being tested positive for Coronavirus (“Pakistan’s Health System Braces for Covid-19 Peak | The Express Tribune,” 2020)
Dr. Ayub Jadoon, a microbiologist from Abbottabad University of Science and Technology, claimed that the current viral attack may be the second exposure for the people of Pakistan. He illustrated due to the low mortality rate and explained that it is quite possible that people of Pakistan are already, more or less, immune to SARS-CoV-2 because it might be the second exposure of Coronavirus in Pakistan and the antibodies or memory B cells that were produced during the first exposure are already present in an individual and this help in defending the body against the recent virus, even if this is another strain of the virus (“Pakistan’s Low Coronavirus Fatalities May Be Due to ‘Second Exposure’ | The Express Tribune”)
A tabular data about the number of COVID-19 cases, deaths due to COVID-19 and the recoveries from this disease is summarized in tables 1, 2 and 3 respectively.