4 | DISCUSSION
Our results indicate that lockdown lifting has adversely affected the health of Pakistani population at large scale. The population of Pakistan has been paying great price for lockdown lifting. The outcome reveals a significant increase in total confirmed cases, daily new cases, total deaths, and daily new deaths after easing lockdown restrictions. COVID-19 is spreading fast in comparison with other respiratory diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). It will take long term planning and effective measures to curb the growth of pandemic of COVID-19. There is no known vaccine of COVID-19 at present (Anderson et al. 2020). The only way to tackle this pandemic is to follow the preventive measures. The government should use all means of communication to launch a vigorous awareness campaign to educate the people about the detrimental health effects of COVID-19. A recent study suggested that Pakistani masses are not well aware of the COVID‐19 and strategies for the prevention and control of infection (Khan et al. 2020). Social media can play a vital role in this regard. WHO also recommends that societies ought to be educated, involved and enabled to adapt to a “new norm” (WHO 2020). Pakistan´s decision to implement lockdown was greatly admired by international bodies like WHO but lockdown ease made the situation worse as the number of infections and deaths have increased drastically.
Little number of COVID-19 tests are being performed on the population. Further, majority of Pakistani population cannot afford to pay high fee of COVID-19 test. The government of Pakistan should take steps to increase the COVID-19 testing by making COVID-19 test free of cost. WHO issued some guidelines regarding lockdown lifting like countries should improve its health system on war footing to spot, test, sequester, and treat new cases before lifting lockdowns. Unfortunately, the health system in Pakistan is not fully developed yet and hospitals in Pakistan have become the breeding ground of COVID-19 virus. Exponential growth of COVID-19 can also be tackled through massive testing. The patients can be isolated timely after massive screening that would deter the growth of COVID-19 in Pakistan. The government can establish the COVID-19 camps to raise awareness and carry out tests at national level.
WHO recommended another criterion for lockdown lifting: that is social distancing. Unluckily, Pakistani population avoid following the social distancing norms in their routine business that bring about phenomenal increase in COVID-19 cases. Transmission rate can be minimized by following social distancing and wearing face mask. Pakistan must adopt the Chinese model of lockdown lifting: China lifted the lockdown but ensured the strict social distancing in addition to massive testing and screening in Wuhan in order to avoid the resurgence of COVID-19 (Gilbert et al. 2020). However, Pakistan is not as developed as compared to China. Lack of resources makes it difficult for Pakistan to carry out massive testing.
The pandemic has adversely affected the world economic system and Pakistan is not an exception to this. Majority of Pakistani population is not that rich and face risk of starvation instead of the COVID-19. Almost all wage earners are deprived of employment due to lockdown. It is very hard for a common man to make ends meet in this time of crisis. To provide relief to its citizens, the government of Pakistan unveiled the first economic relief package worth 900 billion rupees. It was a good initiative but more needs to be done. The pandemic has generated so much apprehension and stress. People need psychological support to handle the apprehension and stress caused by this pandemic.
We suggest that government should follow WHO recommendations and impose periodical lockdowns while monitoring the conduct and activities of the people. Only one person from each family should be allowed to go out once a day to purchase necessities such as food and medicine. Local spread of pandemic can be minimized by screening the essential services like health care, transport, and food industry. Business organizations must devise new infection control policies regarding the COVID-19 if they need to reopen their business after the lockdown. Business owners and managers must arrange disinfection materials, like sanitizing walk-through-gate, hand sanitizer, masks and temperature screening at single entrance. Organizations must constitute departmental committees for reporting the suspected cases of COVID-19 among their colleagues. Unnecessary travel should be restricted by government to prevent the spread of pandemic. Further, imported cases can be avoided by enforcing strict rule of fourteen days quarantine for international travelers.
The present study has some limitations. First, we only check the impact of lockdown lifting in Pakistan. Researchers are encouraged to conduct more studies on this topic in other countries with similar socio-economic settings because this pandemic is affecting different countries in different ways. Second, the focus of the present study is limited to COVID-19-related health outcomes. Our understanding on the impact of lockdown events and policies on non-pandemic-related health outcomes is still incomplete. It will be interesting to know how lockdown restrictions contributed to the other health risks.