Pakistan governor calls Covid lockdowns 'fashion symbols', after falling prey to infection

Amid the Coronavirus outbreak across the world, a Pakistani provincial governor has called the lockdown due to the infection as 'fashion'. In a video shared by Pakistani journalist Naila Inayat on Tuesday, Sindh governor Imran Ismail while appearing in an interview to a local news channel has said that lockdown is a fashion. He opined that it is being imposed everywhere since countries like New York, Rome, etc has shut down. Earlier, Imran Ismail, a very close aide of Prime Minister Imran Khan, tested positive for the deadly coronavirus.

He said: "I want to tell you one thing clearly, lockdown due to Covid-19 has become a fashion. It is a fashion symbol. Because New York is shut, Los Angeles is shut, London is shut, Rome, Paris is shut, so we want to shut our cities otherwise we will be considered outdated." 

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Pakistan Covid tally

Pakistan's COVID-19 cases reached 76,398 on Tuesday after 3,938 new infections were reported across the country, while the death toll due to the coronavirus has gone up to 1,621, according to the health ministry. The Ministry of National Health Services said that 78 COVID-19 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities in Pakistan to 1,621. A total of 27, 110 people have recovered, it said.

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Sindh has 29,647 patients, Punjab 27,850, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 10,485, Balochistan 4,514, Islamabad 2,893, Gilgit-Baltistan 738 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 271, it added. The authorities have conducted 577,974 tests, including 16,548 in the last 24 hours. The jump in the number of cases comes a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan said that people should learn to live with COVID-19 until a vaccine is developed. Khan addressed the media after chairing the meeting of National Coordination Committee, the highest body to tackle the pandemic.

"Coronavirus will not go away until the vaccine is discovered. We need to learn to live with it and we can live with it if we follow precautions," he said. He said the one million volunteers of the government's coronavirus force will raise awareness of the need to follow guidelines. The government also said that all sectors will be opened slowly after deciding the negative list of businesses which will not be allowed. 

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