PANDEMIC COVID-19: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SOCIAL AND SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS BY PUNJAB AND SINDH GOVERNMENTS IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

Purpose: The study analyzes the growing situation of Covid-19 in Pakistan and highlights the recent scientific and social developments made during this pandemic. The paper highlights the exertions of the government of Pakistan in general and especially the preventing measures taken by the Punjab and Sindh government to fight this pandemic. The paper discusses the emergency preparedness and response to the Covid-19 in Pakistan. Method: This research uses publicly available data to inspect the current situation of epidemic Covid-19 and its preventive measures in Pakistan, especially in Punjab and Sindh province. Besides, documents on the website of the daily situation report of NIH (National Institute of Health), WHO covid-19 dashboard (services and coordination) Ministry of National Health Regulation, different scholarly articles, and already existing world reports have been reviewed and analyzed Main Findings: The outbreak of Covid-19 was experienced first time in December 2019 at Wuhan city of China which spread promptly in China and then all-inclusive in 213 other countries including Australia, Asia, Europe, America, and Pakistan as well. Experts believed that in a developing country like Pakistan, its effects would be devastating. It has caused approximately 2, 862, 664 deaths and affected more than 131, 837, 512 people worldwide, while its statistics are growing fast. However, several steps have been adopted to overcome Covid-19 worldwide. Even, drastic measures were taken with limited resources in Pakistan to curb the growing situation of Covid-19 such as lockdown, awareness campaign, quarantine facilities, special hospitals, and laboratories for testing the virus. Application of the Study: The results of this research help the Pakistani government to make their policies more target-ordinated and systematic to cure this pandemic to restore its vigilance with available resources against Covid-19 and trained human capacities, laboratory networks, policy formulation, and national emergency preparedness. The originality of the Study: This research contributes that confusion and uncertainty between the policies of the federal government and provinces on lockdown measures could lead the thousands of untimely deaths. Experts believed that in a developing country like Pakistan, its effects would be devastating. Despite its limited resources, Pakistan took a stand against an epidemic coronavirus and made it a single-point agenda by all the provinces of Pakistan.