Imran Khan’s warning comes as Pakistan registers its lowest single-day rise in COVID-19 cases in three months.
Eid-ul-Adha is one of the most important events to many religious culturally derived families in Pakistan as well as around the world. It is the second major Muslim festival after Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. The occasion will be celebrated in most countries on Friday, July 31 while in Pakistan it will be celebrated on Saturday, August 1st.
As the coronavirus pandemic rages, many Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Algeria have announced restrictions on public gatherings. Many citizens in Pakistan have ceased in following COVID-19 protocols as they believe that whatever came has now gone and because of our economy they decided that staying home was no longer a feasible option as many depend on their business for annual incomes.
Now understanding this situation from all sides is important because keeping the country under lockdown due to COVID-19 is causing many more issues especially in our economy in this already problematic third world country and taking down the restrictions results in spikes of the cases. This raises the point regarding what can we do as citizens to contribute towards improvement of this situation?
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has been urging his citizens to strictly continue following government guidelines by limiting their interactions and social gathering. Pakistan recorded COVID-19 cases rise by 936, the lowest single-day rise since April 29. It has recorded a total of at least 275,000 cases, according to official data, with nearly 6,000 deaths.
The premier addressed the nation from his office in the capital Islamabad on Monday, encouraging citizens to continue in following social distancing protocols so that the economy could be further reopened.
“If we have to impose a lockdown again, it will affect our economy
greatly…. We will find it hard to find employment for our people,”
he stated.
On Monday the Provincial Government of Punjab, the country’s most populous province shockingly enforced a complete lockdown, closing all business and shops other than grocery stores and pharmacies until August 5th.
This should be a viable option for the Government to take to keep the people in Karachi from forcing a spike in corona cases, many individuals can and should take the time to understand why it is important for us to practice social distancing in the events we hold most dear to us.
“Today, I want all Pakistanis to listen to my words carefully…you
must understand that these two events, of Muharram and Eid, if we are
not careful, then our cases can rise again. That will damage us
greatly.” – PM Imran Khan.
As long as we have our core beliefs and the spirit in which we celebrate Eid-ul-Adha
within ourselves we can learn to practice this one Eid socially distanced in our homes
safely.