Prime Minister Imran Khan announces govt’s new measures to control COVID-19 second wave

Prime Minister Imran Khan addressed the nation after presiding a meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC), on Monday.

PM Khan in his address announced governments’s  new measures to control COVID-19.

The premier stated new restrictions on public events, including the suspension of his party’s political rallies, and stressed the implementation of mask-wearing and social distancing to control the spread of the coronavirus.

PM has urged citizens to strictly follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) to prevent the second wave of the coronavirus from wreaking havoc in the country, saying it was time for everyone to “act as a nation”.

“We reviewed the rising cases of the COVID-19 and the second wave — which is being experienced in the entire world, especially Europe and America, where cases are rising rapidly and even more than there were before,” PM Imran Khan said.

“In America, the coronavirus cases have risen beyond the first peak and we see the same in England. They have started lockdowns; just like they shut down their countries earlier, they’ve gone towards the lockdowns again.

“This is the time to take precautions. If we do, we can slow down the virus. Just like earlier we were saved due to following precautions, that time has come again,” he said, noting that COVID-19 cases in Pakistan had increased by four times in the past two weeks.

“We were especially blessed by Allah. We are a very lucky nation; look at Iran and India. We managed to avoid the destruction that coronavirus caused in other countries,” he said.

“But sadly we have seen that our cases have risen by four times in the past two weeks. The 6-7 deaths that we were having per day have climbed to 25,” he said.

“I request my nation that this is the time to take precautions. If we do that, we will be able to stop and slow it down, the same way all of us — everyone in the nation — took precautions earlier and we were saved [because of them].

“We have to do the same again, because that time has come. Face masks are the easiest precaution,” the premier said.

“We just need to slow it down. It will spread nonetheless but if we slow down its speed, then our hospitals will not come under pressure because our main goal is that we do not want our hospitals to be filled up or our doctors and nurses to face the pressure they faced in June”, urged PM.