WASHINGTON: An eminent Pakistani American physician has expressed concerns on yet another surge in Covid19 cases in Pakistan and asked the government to impose ‘mask mandate’.
Dr Mubashar Choudry, a renowned cardiologist in a chat said that cases are surging, and limited testing compared with other countries suggest the virus could be racing through the country at an even higher rate.
“In Pakistan ineffective government limits on personal contact and widespread doubts, often fueled by conspiracy theories, pose more Covid 19 threat”, he added.
According to National Health Services (NHS) the death toll is raising in Pakistan and COVID positivity has reached approximately 5 percent. Health officials in Pakistan have warned of a third wave hitting the country if steps were not taken to stop the tide.
“In Pakistan Mosques, Marriage Halls, Restaurants, Shopping Malls, Buses are crowded while political activity is at its peak and hardly anyone is wearing a mask, ” Dr Mubashar Choudry observed.
Last summer, infectious disease specialists in America warned that the Covid-19 pandemic could spiral into a “twindemic” when seasonal influenza hit but that nightmare scenario did not unfold.
“The flu didn’t get a strong footing in the United States this season because the precautions used to prevent Covid-19, such as mask wearing and physical distancing, helped cut down the activity”, Dr Choudry explained.
He said the evidence in clear that masks can help prevent the spread of Covid-19 and that the more people wearing the masks, the better.
“I thing with Covid is that we can not tell who is infected. You cannot look in a crowd and say, that person should wear a mask. There is a lot of asymptomatic infection, so everybody has to wear a mask,” he aded.
Dr. Choudry said he has been following political activities in Pakistan and has observed that even in big crowds there were only a few who were wearing masks.
He said leaders of the political parties should be an example for their followers by wearing masks in the political gatherings but sadly it is not happening.
A recent study published in Health Affairs compared the Covid-19 growth rate before and after mask mandates in 15 American states found that mask mandates led to a slowdown in daily Covid-19 growth rate, which became more apparent over time.
The first five days after a mandate, the daily growth rate slowed by 0.9 percentage points compared to the five days prior to the mandate while at three weeks that daily growth rate had slowed down by 2 percentage-points.
Another study looked at coronavirus deaths across 198 countries found that those with cultural norms or government policies favoring mask-wearing had lower death rates.
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