ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday feared a second wave of Covid-19 in the coming months in cities where pollution levels are high.
“I fear there might be another spike of coronavirus in cities where the rate of pollution increases in October and November,” the prime minister said while addressing the encouragement award ceremony of ‘Clean Green Index of 19 Competing Cities of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’.
Speaking at the award ceremony, Prime Minister Khan said though measures taken by the government during the pandemic were acknowledged internationally, including by the World Health Organisation, there was still a need to observe precautions to combat an expected second wave of the virus.
“I fear that in these two months — October and November […] cities like Faisalabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Gujranwala where there is more pollution […] there might be a second spike in coronavirus cases. The cases are rising gradually and we hope that they don’t increase quickly; we are monitoring it,” he told participants of the event.
He said that during winter, “pollution becomes stagnant in the atmosphere”, leading to the spread of diseases.
The country’s environment, he said, had been damaged because of deforestation, spilling of sewage into rivers and sea and non-disposal of solid waste, adding that, “people and the government will have to make a joint effort to save the future of our children and the coming generations”.
Similarly, Minister for Planning Asad Umar has also warned of serious consequences of not adhering to COVID related SOPs.
In a tweet on Tuesday, he said daily COVID mortality was twelve last week which is a one hundred and forty percent increase when compared with previous weeks. He said we are collectively committing a blunder by recklessly ignoring all the Standard Operating Procedures and the results have started to show.
He said if we do not change our current path, we will lose both lives and livelihoods.
