E-PAPER 22 MARCH 2020 (KHI)

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22 March, 2020 I 26 Rajab, 1441 I Rs 30.00 I Vol X No 263 I 84 Pages I Karachi Edition

Calls for loCkdown a as Corona Cases Cross 700 g

SINDH GOvT SAyS TIMe HAS COMe TO TAKe TOuGH DeCISION TO KeeP PeOPLe AT HOMeS

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GOvT SuSPeNDS ALL INT’L fLIGHTS fOR TWO WeeKS AS ADB, WB APPROve $538M fOR ANTICORONA effORTS

Opp demands complete lockdown to avert 'tragedy' STORY ON BACK PAGE

Army chief urges social distancing, collective efforts to defeat COvID-19 STORY ON PAGE 02

Shehbaz bids farewell to London, lands home today g

MARyAM WeLCOMeS NeWS, SAyS PeOPLe Of PAKISTAN ARe LOOKING TOWARDS SHARIf BROTHeRS fOR RePRIeve LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shehbaz Sharif has decided to return to Pakistan after spending months in London and will reach the country on Sunday morning. He is returning to the country via PIA’s Islamabad-bound flight (PK-786) which is slated to depart from Heathrow airport at 16:40 (GMT) on Saturday and is expected to land in Islamabad at 5:30 am on Sunday. He had left for London along with his ailing brother Nawaz Sharif last year.

Speaking to a private news channel, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said Shehbaz has decided to return to the country in view of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

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in today’s issue

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ISLAMABAD/KARACHI STAFF REPORT

panic-stricken Pakistan is heading towards a total lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus, as cases across the country reached 730 on Saturday night, with the government suspending international flights for at least two weeks.

All provinces reported new cases of the viral disease: Sindh has 396 cases, Punjab has 137, whereas Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have 104 and 27 cases, respectively. Islamabad has reported 10 cases so far, whereas Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan has 56 cases.

The two major parties, Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and other civil society segments have urged the government to impose a complete lockdown in the country before the situation goes out of hand.

In addition, the Sindh government has hinted at total lockdown of the province to contain the virus, with its spokesperson Murtaza Wahab saying that time has come to make “tough decisions”, whereas the Punjab and Balochistan governments have also opted for partial lockdown in the provinces for two and 21 days, respectively.

Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah discussed “several options with Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, Karachi corps commander, Sindh Rangers DG and Sindh IGP to ensure full implementation of the government’s decision of keeping people at their homes”, said

provincial government’s spokesperson Murtaza Wahab. The government will ensure that grocery and medical shops remain open, he added in a tweet.

“Time for some tough decisions. CM Sindh has discussed with Governor Sindh, Corps Commander Khi, DG Rangers & IG Sindh to ensure full implementation of Govt’s decision of keeping people at their homes. #SindhGovt will ensure that grocery & medical shops remain open,” he wrote.

‘FLIGHTS SUSPENDED’: This followed an earlier announcement by the federal government that it would suspend all international flight operations for two weeks as part of measures to contain the potential spread of coronavirus in the country. However, five flights of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) have been allowed to land in the country.

The flights that have been permitted to land in Pakistan include PK-792 (Birmingham – Islamabad), PK 702 (Manchester – Islamabad), PK-786 (London – Islamabad), PK788 (London – Karachi) and PK722 (Oslo – Islamabad).

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Punjab announces partial lockdown to contain coronavirus STORY ON PAGE 03

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Sunday, 22 March, 2020

NEWS

ARmy chiEf uRgES SociAL diStAncing, coLLEctivE EffoRtS to dEfEAt covid-19 raWaLpindi STAFF REPORT

Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Saturday instructed Pakistan Army to accelerate efforts to support the civil administration in its fight against coronavirus, as he urged the people to practice social distancing in a bid to flatten the curve.

According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the army is “once again in the forefront of fighting a national challenge, with army institutions and doctors fully assisting the civil administration and utilising all resources at their disposal to effectively combat coronavirus outbreak”.

The army chief stressed that protective step by every individual is important to meet this challenge. He said: “We have to become a responsible citizen so that the collective efforts at the government and institutions level are made successful.” He said responsibility rests with every Pakistani to fully comply with the instructions of the government and the health ministry regarding coronavirus. This, he said, will lead to the success of national efforts.

Following a meeting of the National Security Committee, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa had instructed all formations of the army to

reach out to the civil administration, even at district and tehsil levels, in their respective domains to control the crisis.

While scientists under the supervision of the army are busy researching and manufacturing personal protection equipment, such as facemasks and hand sanitisers, a ‘medical plan of action’ has been compiled under the supervision of the surgeon general of Pakistan Army to support the government efforts to fight the disease.

The armed forces are helping out screening of passengers at all operational airports within the country, besides screening, scanning, and shifting of the suspect cases at all the entry points of the country. Besides, all the medical facilities of the armed forces are being utilized for assistance and load management of coronavirus patients at the moment.

Pakistan Army has helped establish a 10,000-bed field hospital at Karachi’s Expo Centre. A special quarantine centre has also been established by the Pakistan Army to facilitate patients. The hospital is meant to isolate and treat confirmed patients of the coronavirus in a safe and secure environment, away from common people and other patients in the city. The Medical Corps of Pakistan Army has come forward to help in the establishment of the field hospital on the request of the Sindh government. Moreover, the army and the Rangers are assisting in op-

Shehbaz bids farewell to London, lands today Continued from page 01 She said Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister, who is being treated for his ailments in the United Kingdom, is scheduled to undergo surgery for his heart complications soon. “Shehbaz Sharif has decided to return to the country despite his brother’s heart condition,” she added. In a video, Shehbaz said he wanted to return to Pakistan amid coronavirus crisis but could not due to the health issues of his elder brother. “But when I heard about Pakistan’s airspace closure starting from tonight, I asked my brother his permission to return to the homeland, which he gave,” he said. The former chief minister also expressed concerns about the worsening situation of the economy and asked the government to take appropriate steps at the national level for improving the economic situation of the country. Reacting to the news of the uncle’s return, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz welcome his decision and the people of Pakistan have pinned their hopes on the Sharif brothers. She hoped her uncle would emerge victorious despite all the challenges and opposition being faced by him.

‘Retired employees to get pension at their doorstep’

erating health facilities in Sukkur, Dera Ghazi Khan and Multan.

The Pakistan Army is also assisting the civil administration in physical and information domains to tackle the coronavirus outbreak. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) and the information and health ministries have collectively formed a ‘Risk Communication Strategy’ aimed at leaving no communication gap between the people and the institutions as well as busting all negative propaganda and misinformation doing rounds on the social media. In his latest directions on Saturday, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa

CPEC to proceed as planned despite corona pandemic: Qureshi iSLamaBad STAFF REPORT

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday assured that work on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will go ahead as planned despite the drastic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

In conversation with a Chinese daily, Qureshi said the two countries are committed to the mega project as per the scheduled construction plan.

“I don’t think it will have an impact on the CPEC in the long run. But in the short run, yes, there could be a slight slowdown. As soon as we are over the hump of dealing with the coronavirus, I think we’ll be back on track.”

POL PARTIES SHOULD COME ON SAME PAGE ON PANDEMIC: Separately, the foreign minister said all political parties should unite on the pandemic. He welcomed Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s proposal to work together against the disease.

He said the federal government is

cooperating with the Sindh government on the issue.

“The pandemic has affected the entire world, more than 300,000 persons have been tested positive for the virus and over 10,000 people have died of it globally. Every individual needs to fight against this epidemic. “[Developed] economies like France are also struggling to counter COVID-19. Pakistan is facing the challenge to save more lives within its limited resources.”

Qureshi also reiterated Prime Min-

ister Imran Khan’s call to the international community to consider writing off loans for developing countries in order to ensure resource allocation to fight coronavirus that has crippled the world economy.

QURESHI ENDORSES IMRAN ON CALL TO WRITE-OFF DEBT: In a tweet posted Saturday, Qureshi said, “The UN SG has highlighted the message of Global Solidarity and focusing on protecting most vulnerable.”

“PM Imran Khan has also underscored the importance of relieving the burden of debt-ridden developing countries in order to ensure resource allocation for saving lives and stemming eco decline.” The foreign minister also said alleviating this financial burden will help protect the most vulnerable and already struggling to cope with the challenge with limited resources and infrastructure to fight the pandemic.

In an interview with the Associated Press, the premier expressed concern over the devastating impact the virus may have on economies of developing countries.

Elahi greets Khawaja brothers after bail LAHORE: Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi telephoned Khawaja brothers on Saturday congratulating them on their release after a year-long detention. On the occasion, Salman Rafique and Saad Rafique both thanked the senior politician and also expressed the resolve to stand by the federal and provincial governments in their fight against the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Elahi notified them about the decision according to which each assembly member opting to donate their one-month salary in coronavirus relief efforts. Khawaja Salman Rafique said that the current times are very difficult for the country and whatever direction and decision is made by the government, he willfully back it.

Khawaja Saad Rafique said that one shouldn’t be afraid of the coronavirus rather face it head-on and defeat it. INP

Police round up over 20 people for violating coronavirus lockdown As the police continued the crackdown against those violating the Sindh government’s orders against public gatherings and closures of businesses amid the coronavirus crisis, at least 20 people were arrested in Karachi on Friday night and Saturday. The Sindh government has ordered a partial lockdown in the province, encompassing non-essential shops, restaurants, cinemas, malls and public parks and beaches.

Meanwhile, the police have reportedly been ordered to take action against gatherings of four or more people, even in vehicles. The Shahrae Noor Jehan police claimed to have arrested 12 individuals after conducting a raid at a snooker club. According to the Central SSP, the suspects were arrested for violating Section 144, while cases have been registered against the arrested individuals.

Two men were also held by the Bahadurabad police for holding a wedding ceremony in Mohammad Ali Society. SHO Aurangzaib Khattak shared that a police team conducted a raid after being informed about a wedding ceremony being hosted in the basement of a bungalow. Arresting two men associated with the event’s management, namely Iqbal and Amin, the police registered cases against them. Meanwhile, the Korangi police claimed to have arrested Yaseen and Jumma Khan, while the Khokhrapar police reportedly nabbed Nasar Ahmed and Pervez Iqbal during separate operations, for violating the provincial government’s orders. Separately, two others, identified as Ashfaq and Mohsin, were apprehended from Shah Faisal Town for similar offences. NEWS DESK

Calls for lockdown as corona cases cross 700 Continued from page 01

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Saeed on Saturday announced that pensions of 1.3 million retired government employees will be delivered to them at their doorstep amid the coronavirus pandemic. Saeed said that the decision was taken after Prime Minister Imran Khan issued special directives to minimise unnecessary public gatherings around the country. He said that Pakistan Post will deliver pensions to retired government employees at their doorsteps to ensure that the elderly stay at home and remain safe amid the global coronavirus pandemic. He also informed that Pakistan Post has finalised all arrangements to deliver pension to 1.3 million retired government employees at their doorsteps. INP

ordered the armed forces to fast-track operations to help out the civil administration in controlling the coronavirus.

However, he urged the public to protect themselves on the individual level.

Inter-Services Public Relations office of the Armed Forces in a statement after a conclusion of a meeting between Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa said that the military has been directed to play a more active role in helping the civilian government amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

The army chief emphasised social distancing as the best possible defense mechanism against the coronavirus and said that individual efforts will eventually end up saving the entire nation if everyone abides by the rules of quarantined self-isolation.

COAS Bajwa said that it was an obligation of every Pakistani to act in accordance with the directives issued by the ministry of health and the government.

He also said that the country’s security establishment sees the protection of the country and its people as a sacred duty and it will perform it to the best of their abilities in these times of global crisis.

The army chief also underscored the need for mutual understanding and partnerships among the state institutions to tackle the dangerous threat of coronavirus.

Addressing a press conference in the federal capital, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security Division Dr Moeed Yousaf said that the restriction on flights will be effective from 8 pm on Saturday and to April 4.

He, however, said that flights carrying diplomats and cargo ships will continue their operations during this period.

Speaking on the occasion, Special Assistant on National Health Services Dr Zafar Mirza said that the government has decided to chalk out a mechanism for sharing and exchanging information between federal and provincial governments about the coronavirus pandemic.

The PM’s aide also appealed to the nation to practice social distancing on a long weekend to avoid transmission coronavirus. “I am very hopeful, if we practice social distancing, we will be able to control the pandemic,” he said, adding that the National Coordination Committee (NCC) was constituted to collect data and brief the nation about the national emergency.

Secondly, the NCC will deliver the

messages through media on awareness and government’s action to prevent the transmission of the virus as well as to strengthen coordination between the provinces and the federal government, he said. Thirdly, the purpose of constituting a committee was regarding the procurement of masks, ventilators, protective gear to enhance the capacity to fight the virus, he added. “Protection of our frontline doctors treating infected people was government’s foremost priority,” Dr Mirza said, adding the NCC would deliver a univocal message to the nation using information technology. He said that coronavirus has reached 186 countries and has affected 0.27 million people whereas, 11,431 people have died because of the infection, but 92,000 completely recovered– which gives hope.

He said that in Pakistan three people have died because of the virus and so far five people have recovered from the disease and many more would recover in the coming days. Mirza said that 13,991 people at all entry points were scanned in the last 24 hours and 1.4 million people have been screened so far at entry points.

He said in between February 28 to

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March 17, 6,304 people entered in Pakistan from Iran out which 2,421 arrived in Balochistan, 176 people arrived in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 2,012 arrived in Punjab, 1,059 arrived in Sindh, 14 arrived in AJK and 523 arrived in Gilgit Baltistan (GB). “It was decided to quarantine all returning citizens from Iran at Taftan and now the provinces were doing it again,” the SAPM said, adding that 3,378 people were spending time in quarantine facilities in different provinces. He said that government of Pakistan has established 14 labs so far in all four provinces for testing coronavirus and more labs would be established soon.

In his remarks, NDMA Chairman Lieutenant General Muhammad Afzal expressed confidence that nation and civil and military leadership would win fight against COVID-19 through joint efforts.

He said that 20,000 testing kits have arrived from China and were handed over to the National Institute of Health (NIH). He said that China will provide 100 ventilators to Pakistan in the coming days.

ADB, WB APPROVE $538M: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq

Awan said that the World Bank has approved a $238 million grant to help Pakistan’s efforts against the coronavirus while the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has also approved a grant of $350 million for the same cause. Taking to Twitter, Dr Firdous implored the nation to strictly follow precautionary measures against the fast-spreading coronavirus. She added that such challenges are tackled by the governments and countrymen together.

RAILWAYS SUSPENDS 42 TRAINS: Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Saturday announced the suspension of 42 trains by April 1 as a preventive measure to restrict the transmission of coronavirus.

Addressing media, the minister said that 12 trains (6-up+down) will be suspended from Sunday evening whereas 22 trains (11up+down) will be suspended from the Tuesday morning and the other 8 trains (4-up+down) will be suspended on April 1.

Khushhal Express, Akber Express, Sindh Express, Ravi Express, Shah Latif and Rohi Express, (6-up+6 down) will be closed from Sunday evening whereas Jinnah Express, Bolan Express, Moinjo Daro Express, Thal Express, Marvi Express, Samman Shakir Express, Faisalabad Express, Mosa Pak Express, and Channab Express will be suspended on March 25, he added.

Sunday, 22 March, 2020

punjaB announces partial lockdown to contain coronavirus SINDH GOVT DEVISES A TWO-PRONGED STRATEGY TO DEAL WITH RISING CASES

NEWS

03

GB doctor infected By coronavirus fiGhtinG for life after Govt fails to provide safety suit ISLAMABAD GHULAM ABBAS

LAHORE

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STAFF REPORT

N wake of a surge in novel coronavirus cases across Pakistan, the Punjab government on Saturday announced a partial lockdown for two days to contain the outbreak.

Speaking at a press conference, he said that of the total, 106 COVID-19 cases were reported in Dera Gazi Khan, 20 in Lahore, four in Multan and one in Rawalpindi.

Buzdar said that the government has ordered the closure of all shopping malls and markets across the province for the next two days with effect from 9 pm on Saturday till 9 am on Tuesday. However, he added medical stores and shops selling essential food items will remain open.

He appealed to the people to stay home to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus. The chief minister explained the government is not declaring a lockdown in the province but urging social distancing.

Moreover, according to a letter written by the Lahore deputy commissioner (DC) to all assistant commissioners (AC), there is a possibility of a lockdown, therefore,

they are all requested to immediately coordinate with the superintendent of police (SP) of their division. The letter further states that one revenue officer will be deputed with each deputy superintendent of police (DSP) of sub-division.

Earlier, on March 20, the National Coordination Committee (NCC) had ruled out the need for an immediate lockdown all over the country to contain the spread of coronavirus. Prime Minister Imran Khan had presided over a meeting of the committee in Islamabad. The committee had unanimously decided to not declare a lockdown all over the country.

Speaking during the meeting, the prime minister had issued directives for keeping the people posted about the pandemic situation. He had said that the government is utilising all resources at its disposal in its fight against the infection.

He had emphasised the need for adopting precautionary measures to stop further spread of the disease.

SINDH GOVT DEVISES TWOPRONGED STRATEGY: The Sindh government also prepared a strategy to deal with the rising number of coronavirus

firdous urges people to adopt precautionary measures against covid-19 ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Saturday advised the masses to follow precautionary measures to control the spread of deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19). In a series of tweets, she said that protecting the health of the people was the topmost priority of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

She said that no negligence had been identified anywhere in the country regarding the handling and treatment of COVID-19 patients nor it would be tolerated in the future as well. She also said that the prime minister was personally monitoring the whole situation arising out of coronavirus. She further said the federal and provincial governments, as well as other relevant institutions, were working in coordination to control the situation. She urged the people to demonstrate exemplary discipline and confront this virus with courage, resilience and unity. Dr Firdous also advised people to avoid going to the gatherings, handshakes and repeatedly wash their hands. She advised the masses not to eat at restaurants and prefer to takeaway the meal.

She said that to confront the coronavirus threat, the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) would give $238 million and $350 million to Pakistan, respectively. Meanwhile, she also paid tribute to the doctors, nurses and paramedical staff who are currently dealing with the coronavirus cases. She acknowledged that they were putting their lives at risk to save the lives of others. STAFF REPORT

patients in the province as the tally crossed 350 on Saturday.

The authorities devised a two-pronged strategy to deal with the virus as only patients with severe symptoms would be quarantined at the hospitals in case the government faces short of spaces.

Those who are declared out of danger will be isolated at their homes, however, police will be deployed at their homes to keep a watch on their movement. Neither

the patient would be allowed to meet anyone nor would any visitors be allowed.

Sindh Minister for Health and Population Welfare Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho said that so far 2,700 tests have been carried out for COVID-19 in the province, of these tests, 101 were declared as positive in Karachi, one in Hyderabad and 255 in Sukkur where pilgrims took tests for the disease after returning from Iran via Taftan.

PEMRA asks TV channels to propagate social distancing JOURNALIST SAYS THE DECISION SHOULD HAVE BEEN TAKEN WEEKS AGO, URGES COMPLETE LOCKDOWN LAHORE

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HASSAN NAQVI

HE Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) on Saturday advised all media houses to promote a culture of social distancing amid coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic through TV shows.

In its letter to all the media houses, the regulatory body asked to conduct programs aimed at promoting social distancing without inviting the live audience in view of precautionary measures advised by the health experts and guidelines issued by the government, besides public may be educated on social distancing through short messages.

PEMRA stated that all media houses are also advised to telecast programs of public interest such as movies, popular dramas, award shows, etc. in order to motivate the public to stay at home and watch their favourite programmes on TV instead of socialising and exposing themselves to this pandemic. This pandemic is a global crisis and no government can alone defeat it, therefore, it is the responsibility of every one of us to play our part for

safety and protection of our countrymen by adopting precautionary measures and encouraging the whole nation to adopt such measures at their homes, workplaces and avoid public exposure unless inevitable, the letter stated.

PEMRA also stated it has been observed that some satellite TV channels are conducting morning shows as well as satirical/comedy shows inviting live audience/general public and roadshows/sting programs engaging public. “It is an established fact that COVID-19 is contagious and spread from one person to another, therefore, a reasonable distance is i.e. one meter approximately should be maintained in order to secure oneself as well as others,” PEMRA said.

PEMRA feared that organising such shows or programs, involving public participation may create a serious threat for the channels and participating audience which may cause further spread of COVID-19 (if anyone is affected).

'GREAT SUGGESTIONS': Talking to Pakistan Today, senior journalist and anchor Zarrar Khuhro, said these are great suggestions by PEMRA and he agrees with them. “Media’s responsibility at this point in time is not only to educate the masses about this virus but also to

practice what it preaches i.e. by maintaining and implementing the advisable distance between the guests/panelists on their respective shows,” Khuhro said.

He added that TV anchors are not experts on this virus so it is about time that they fact check things, listen to doctors and other medical practitioners before giving any verdicts in their respective shows. While, senior journalist and talk show host at Hum News, Adil Shahzeb, said that it is a delayed step although it is in the right direction and the media should implement it without fail.

However, this particular advisory is self-contradictory at the same time when it states “it is an established fact that Covid-19 is contagious as it spreads from one person to another.

Well, Covid-19 is as contagious in TV studios as it is in our restaurants, shopping malls and mosques,” Shahzeb said. He advised that in plain words lockdown at least for two weeks and aggressive testing only way forward.

“By delaying a lockdown the government will be complicit in multiplying the cases,” Shahzeb opined.

A ban on international flights should have been announced in early March, he said, criticising the delay in such decisions. “They will eventually lockdown too but by then the cases would be multiplied a few times,” Shahzeb feared. He stated that it is incompetence, lack of timely proactive and aggressive approach, unlike Sindh.

In an unfortunate development, a young doctor who was on duty of screening pilgrims arriving from Iran and other pilgrims coming into Gilgit Baltistan (GB) is in critical condition after being infected by the coronavirus.

According to the details, Dr Usama Riaz, who hails from Chilas of Diamer district in GB, was admitted in Gilgit District Headquarter Hospital on Friday night after falling unconscious and is presently fighting for his life on a ventilator. Addressing a press conference in Gilgit on Saturday, the office bearers of Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) informed that the said doctor had tested positive for the novel virus. Gilgit Director Health Dr Iqbal Rasool also confirmed the report. They blamed the lack of facilities and the government’s negligence for Dr Usama’s condition, emphasising that he could have saved himself had he been provided with the required medical equipment like polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kits specific to coronavirus. It was stated that a medical board has been constituted for deciding Dr Usama’s fate after consultation with his family as his condition was very critical. It may be mentioned here that the affected doctor cannot be moved to another hospital due to his condition. According to PMA representatives, Dr Usama is the first Pakistani doctor who got affected by coronavirus after dealing with suspected patients.

“Dr Usama should be declared a national hero for his bravery against fighting the coronavirus,” they said. Meanwhile, with the confirmation of 25 new cases of coronavirus patients in GB, the total number of corona affected patients in the region increased to 56 on Saturday. While those who tested positive were shifted to isolation wards, GB Law Minister Aurangzeb Khan said that more tests of pilgrims were still awaited as the regional government lacks enough testing facilities.

fM Qureshi demands end to sanctions on iran ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday demanded the lifting of sanctions on Iran as the novel coronavirus continued to claim victims in Iran and affect people in Pakistan.

The foreign minister spoke to his German counterpart Heiko Maas over the phone where he expressed concern over Iran’s situation. He said that Iran was facing difficult circumstances and economic sanctions against Iran were making it difficult for the country to contain the coronavirus. FM Qureshi said that Iran needed medicinal drugs, ventilators and other medical equipment to tackle the pandemic. He said that the economic sanctions posed against Iran were making it difficult for the country to do so. He urged the world to forge unity within its ranks to battle the virus which has claimed more than 10,000 lives around the globe and infected more than 200,000. Maas, on the other hand, informed Qureshi that 68,000 Germans had been affected by the coronavirus and 68 had died.

He said that the G-7 conference and the European Union (EU) Foreign Ministers Conference was about to be held during which the economic sanctions against Iran will be discussed. STAFF REPORT

Plea in SC for aggressive coronavirus measures PANDEMIC, IF NOT CURBED URGENTLY, WILL RESULT IN UNMATCHED PHYSICAL, MENTAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL LOSS ISLAMABAD TLTP

A constitutional petition under Article 184(3) has been instituted in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, urging the Supreme Court to order the federal and provincial governments to take immediate action for effectively dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.

The petitioners adopted the stance that the governments have clearly failed even at such an early stage of the pandemic. They requested the SC to order the federal

government to declare a national public health emergency across the country, establish an emergency relief fund, and utilize the dam fund for curtailment of this virus.

The petition has been moved by human rights organizations, activists, lawyers, President of Awami Workers (AWP) Punjab, and those who are directly affected by federal and provincial governments’ mismanagement in dealing with the rapid spread of the virus.

The confirmed cases of coronavirus have jumped from 22 cases

last Friday to 504 cases Saturday. It is this rapid acceleration that the petitioners fear and if it were not contained right away, it would reach a level that the governments would be unable to control.

The petitioners contend that even at this early stage of the pandemic, the current federal and provincial governments have failed miserably and in fact, governments’ current policies, ignorance of the gravity of the situation and inaction would only further accelerate this issue.

According to the petitioners,

“This global epidemic poses an unprecedented threat to the fundamental rights of the public at large, including, but not limited to, the right to essential healthcare, the right to earn a livelihood, the right to enjoy equal protection of law, the right to freedom of movement and assembly, the right to trade, the right to receive information, the right to education, and all in all, the right to a dignified and free existence. This pandemic disease, if not curbed urgently, possesses the capacity to destabilize the entire nation, resulting in unmatched physical, mental, economic, and social loss to the country.”

Moreover, the petitioners have prayed for urgent action to secure katchi abadis (slums) and refugee settlements Katchi abadis with their

high density, poor sanitation, water shortages, and proximity to sewage could become death traps and flash points for coronavirus expansion.

Similarly, the release of undertrial inmates and convicted prisoners for minor offenses incarcerated in jails all over the country has been requested. The petitioners fear if the federal and provincial governments do not take immediate effective

measures, there would large-scale loss of life, critical health issues, food shortages, economic downfall, crime, and chaos.

The petitioners said that realizing the urgency of the situation, all organs of the state should be engaged at this moment in dealing with this pandemic before it is too late and the country reaches a point of no return.

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Sunday, 22 March, 2020

WEATHER UPDATES

KARACHI

SUNDAY

310C

230C

MONDAY

310C

220C

TUESDAY

300C

200C

PRAyER TImINgS FAJR SUNRISE

ZUHR

ASR MAGHRIB ISHA

5:19

12:40

4:06

6:35

6:44

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Info adviser hails people’s response to CM’s call KARACHI PPI

KARACHI: Shops remained closed in the Saddar area of the provincial capital after Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah urged the public to exercise self-isolation to curb the spread of coronavirus. ONlINE

ChAos At FACIlIty AFter CoronA pAtIents, suspeCts try to esCApe SUKKUR

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STAFF REPORT

N isolation center in Sukkur witnessed complete chaos after incitement from miscreants lead to an uproar resulting in coronavirus patients fleeing from their designated wards, media reports emerged on Saturday.

The pilgrims who were quarantined broke out of the wards and took to streets among scores of healthy individuals,

Congo pAtIent reported In JpMC KARACHI: A Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) case was reported at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) here on Saturday. Executive Director, JPMC, Dr Seemin Jamali, while talking to PPI, said a 40-year-old man, a resident of Pak Colony, was reported in emergency department with congo fever related complications. She informed that the patient is a butcher by profession and he is patient with a positive PCR CCHF.She informed that the patient was first shifted to Civil Hospital Karachi where administration refused to get him admitted, and he was later brought to JPMC for treatment. She further informed that this was the first Congo patient reported in JPMC this year so far.

Experts said Congo fever is a fatal viral disease that spread through a tick bite, which is a parasite and lives in the blood of animals. The congo mainly contracts people who deal with cattle and livestock. The major symptoms of congo virus include backache, joints pain, pain in the abdomen, high grade fever and bleeding from any part of the body. PPI

gathered to see what was transpiring.

According to initial reports, almost 100 quarantined patients and suspects came out of their wards and are trying to flee the premises. Sindh Rangers and local police have surrounded the isolation center and get control of the situation.

Reportedly, some volunteers wanted to serve food to the quarantined pilgrims but they were disallowed by the administration, the pilgrims were then incited by WhatsApp voice notes that resulted in the break-out.

PPP leader says Centre should support Sindh in fight against corona KARACHI PPI

PPP Leader Ms Sharmila Farooqui said on Saturday that the federal government should come forward with concrete measures to fully and immediately support the Sindh government for its fight against coronavirus, so that time may not run out.

“Sindh government has adopted strong strategy to tackle coronavirus, which has been applauded not only in the country but also in other parts of the world. The federal government should monitor the steps being taken in the world countries like China and Italy. It should also learn lessons from these countries,” she said in a statement issued today.

She said that Sindh government had made a task force which was daily monitoring situation of coronavirus cases and taken steps to control the disease. The provincial government has decided to convert Expo Centre Karachi as Isolation Centre. It has also established Isolation Centre in Gadap, Larkana, Sukkur and other districts of Sindh.

“The federal government should provide ventilators,

kits, masks and other necessary equipment for these isolation centres besides providing other necessary support.

The federal government also needs to launch countrywide awareness campaigns so that people could be able to learn preventive measures, she added.

The PPP leader said: “The cases in the country, particularly in Sindh, are rising fast, so hard measures are needed to contain the virus. The disease cases could go out of control if we make any late, because our healthcare system is not so large. Like Sindh government’s effective steps against the coronavirus, all other provinces should also follow the suit. To achieve the desired goals against the disease, the federal government support is mandatory for all the province with immediate effect. We can defeat this pandemic with unity and firm resolve.” Referring to a report, she said: "Countries have two options: either they should fight hard to control the epidemic or they may suffer a massive epidemic. Spain, Germany, France and the US all have more cases than Italy, but it ordered the lockdown, while the US, UK, Switzerland and Netherlands have so far chosen the mitigation strategy.

That means they’re giving up without a fight. However, China announced lockdown of Wuhan.

Commissioner vows to defeat corona on war footing basis NAWABSHAH APP

Divisional Commissioner Shaheed Benazirabad Syed Mohsin Ali Shah has said that fight was need of hour to combat with the recent situation of coronavirus in order to safeguard people from this deadly pandemic.

He was presiding over a meeting to review the arrangements taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The meeting was attended by Focal Person for Corona nominated by Health Department and Divisional Coordinator Imtiaz Ali Rajpar, Deputy Commissioner Sanghar Mirza Nasir Ali, Deputy Commissioner Shaheed Benazirabad Abrar Ahmed Jafar, Deputy Commissioner

Naushehro Feroze Capt ® Bilal Shahid Rao, Additional Commissioner Fayyaz Hussain Rahujo, Director Local Government Abdul Sattar Rathore, District Health Officers of all the three districts and officials of other related departments.

Addressing the meeting, Commissioner said that more stringent measures were needed to be taken in country specially in Sindh province in the wake of increasing cases of corona in the country for which the cooperation of the people was very important. Commissioner directed Deputy Commissioners of all the three districts to deal with the situation of coronavirus with the cooperation of elected representatives, political and social leaders, business associations and religious leaders in fully implementing the government-is-

sued preventive measures while awareness campaigns should also be launched through announcements from mosques to raise awareness among the masses.

Commissioner urged officials of the health department to prepare doctors, paramedical staff and safety equipment for treatment and look after of virus affected persons. A supervising team led by Vice Chancellor Peoples Medical University Prof Dr Gulshan Memon would review the provision of health facilities and services at the Quarantine Center established at Labor Colony by Commissioner.

The team comprises District Health Officers of all the three districts, Dean Department of Medicine Peoples Medical Hospital Dr Rafique Memon and other doctors. Commissioner instructed Deputy

Commissioners to immediately activate Quarantine Centers and Isolation Wards in their districts and furnish list of received necessary and safety items to the Commissioner’s Office.

Commissioner also instructed to depute Assistant Commissioners for supervision of soap distribution work to people in each Union Council on behalf of Sindh Government’s Local Government Department.

Deputy Commissioners of all the three districts briefed the meeting in detail about steps taken for prevention of coronavirus and raising awareness among general public in their respective districts while all district health officers also provided information about the arrangements made about health facilities for the prevention coronavirus.

Sindh Minister for Information, Local Government, Housing & Town Planning, Religious Affairs, Forest & Wildlife Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has said in order to limit the spread of novel coronavirus the way the people of Sindh had confined to their homes on the appeal of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was commendable. He said that the most effective way to keep themselves safe from getting affected by coronavirus was caution. He said that the more the people would be cautioned the more they would be successful in keeping themselves as well as others safe from getting affected by the virus. In a message on Saturday, Shah said that the efforts of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and his complete team were highly praiseworthy. The minister said that the history would always remember the sincere efforts and the timely taken steps by Chief Minister Sindh against this pandemic. He said that Chairman Pakistan People’s Party had already given clear directives to the Sindh government about taking every possible step to counter or limit this pandemic. Shah said that whatever Sindh government had done so far to limit the spread of coronavirus in the province was being appreciated worldwide. The whole Sindh government on the directives of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was vigorously monitoring the constantly changing situation, he added. Shah assured that every possible measure was being adopted to limit the spread of coronavirus. The minister said that the cooperation of the public with the Sindh government was an exemplary. On the other hand, the way the volunteers had come forward and became the helping hand of the government was also laudable, Shah said. The minister also thanked all the welfare organizations for their cooperation with the Sindh government. He hoped that with all these collective efforts, we would get rid of this pandemic soon.

FIA arrests two men for blackmailing woman KARACHI INP

The Cyber Crime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday claimed to have rounded up two men, involved in blackmailing. As per details, the action was carried out in Shahra-e-Faisal area of the metropolis, where Mansoor and Adnan were taken into custody over blackmailing a woman.The accused also shared illicit videos of the woman and sent to her family in order to blackmail her.A case has been lodged against the accused under cybercrime act.

10 injured after speeding bus rams into wall UCH SHARIF INP

At least 10 people were wounded when a van rammed into a wall in Uch Sharif in the wee hours of Thursday.

According to reports, the accident occurred due to speeding. Police and rescue teams reached the spot and shifted the injured to the hospital. Rescue sources said that women and children were among the injured. One of the injured was in critical condition, they said.

Sunday, 22 March, 2020

NEWS

05

COVID-19 InfOrmatIOn blaCkOut hIttIng OCCuPIeD kashmIr harD SRINAGAR

a

AGENCIES

NxIETY and fear is gripping residents of Indian Occupied Jammua and Kashmir (IOJ&K) after the first coronavirus case was found in the region’s main city, Srinagar, yesterday, yet a lid is still being kept on information.

The confirmation came after government spokesperson Rohit Kansal tweeted the news and called on the public to take safety measures to stem the virus’ spread and stay indoors.

But the people in the region are questioning how they can access any information on the pandemic when the government has restricted internet access.

“How will you get informed about this pandemic which has struck globally when you do not have access to information?” Zaffar Mohiudin, a medical student, told Anadolu Agency.

“Here the government is more concerned about so-called security

and terror activities but is less concerned about the health and safety of the people of the region. It is high time for the government to restore high-speed internet in the region so that people can have information.”

At the video conference of Saarc countries on COVID-19, Pakistan had also drawn attention to the health emergency in IOJ&K in the context of coronavirus and underscored the need for lifting of restrictions on communications and ensuring access to medical supplies.

IOJ&K was thrust into a digital black hole last August after India’s government revoked its special status and downgraded its statehood into two federal territories.

The move came with a strict military and communication clampdown, and it was only last month that the government in the region restored internet but with restricted speed that makes accessing anything next to impossible.

MITIGATE RISKS OF COVID19: Amnesty International India has asked the Indian government to im-

mediately restore full internet services to the people of occupied valley.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the group said that Indian government must lift internet restrictions so that people in the region have full access to health- and safety-related information. “The situation in relation to the coronavirus is constantly evolving.

To ensure its full communication to the people of IOJ&K, the government of India must urgently lift internet restrictions in the region and ensure real time preparedness of the people

President urges nation to fight coronavirus threat through individual, collective efforts ISLAMABAD APP

President Dr Arif Alvi Saturday urged the nation to take responsibility of fighting the threat of Coronavirus (COVID 19) individually and collectively by adhering to stringent precautionary measures and avoiding social gathering.

The president was responding to public queries and suggestions on his Facebook live page, where he said people should impose a selfdiscipline in and around their social milieu and at homes.

“The fight against Coronavirus is an individual and collective cause and everyone should take it as his or her fight,” he said while reposing full confidence in the ability and resilience of the nation.

The president said the threat had reached to their homes after making inroads into the country. He also expressed his satisfaction that the political leaders from different parties and media had been playing their due role in sensitizing the masses.

The political adversaries had reduced their criticism due to this collective struggle, he added.

The president also expressed the confidence that the Pakistani nation which was the largest alms and zakat giving nation in the world, would come forward in this critical situation and support the fight against disease and poverty.

To a suggestion, the president noted that all the political, religious and social organizations should immediately galvanize their youth wings to work as volunteers in this

fight against Coronavirus.

He said, “Nations become great after facing ordeals boldly and through unity within their ranks.”

The Pakistani nation had proved it so many times in the past, when they bravely faced the natural calamity of 2005 quake, wars imposed upon it, the massive floods and the during the tide of terrorism. To a question, he said the armed forces of the country had already been supporting all the efforts being made to control the COVID 19.

He said Pakistan embassies across the globe had been working to facilitate the overseas Pakistanis in this difficult period.

The president also underlined the significance of proper hygienic habits like; frequent washing of hands with soap or sanitizers and proper disposal of masks, mopping of surfaces with disinfectants and washing of clothes, etc.

The president said according to a Hadith, the ailing and healthy people should not be mingled together; therefore, the social gatherings should be halted immediately.

He further advised that the infected person or a person having symptoms of cough or flu should go into self isolation at homes as precautionary step, besides wearing of mask. The infected person should adopt self isolation in a room and avoid mingling with the family members. The utensils and other things under the use of patient should be properly disinfected, he suggested.

The major idea behind self iso-

lation was to break human carrier chain of this pathogen. Yet, there was no medicine to treat this disease so people should stay at homes, with plenty of water intake along with healthy diet and exercise regularly.

To a question, he said the hospital beds in the country were inadequate for the existing patients, so public dependency on the government should be reduced as each flu or cough related case did not relate to this pathogen.

If people did not take these precautionary measures seriously, then what the government could do! he said expressing his wonder over reports that people had been roaming freely on roads, at shopping arenas and in the restaurants.

He stressed that such irresponsible behaviour must change.

The president said that human beings were not supposed to revolt against the laws of nature.

Pakistan, he said, could not afford a complete lockdown due to its economic situation.

About Chinese experience, he shared that they had at least 90,000 aid workers and volunteers, besides US&3.1 trillion extra resources.

Replying to another question, he said Pakistan had been a major supply route for Afghanistan via port, therefore, it could not be shut.

In the past, the country had hosted million of Afghan refugees.

The president said the federal and provincial governments had established special helplines and the people should seek their help in case of emergency or information.

AJK PM declares jihad on deadly coronavirus ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Prime Minister Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Raja Farooq Haider Khan has directed the concerned authorities to ensure availability of edibles and other basic necessities of life to masses throughout the state.

Presiding over the State Coordination Committee’s (SCC) meeting here on Saturday, he directed to extend full cooperation to the workers engaged on daily wages besides providing them essential commodities on immediate basis.

The Prime Minister also directed for screening of those returning to the state from abroad. “They must be detained at their houses after completion of the screening process and district administration along-with health officials visit their

houses to monitor the situation on daily basis”, he added.

He urged civil society, religious scholars and traders to help government to effectively deal with the corona pandemic. Announcing two months remission in the sentences of prisoners in the state, Prime Minister also directed strict action against those involved in spreading fake news and rumors in crisis situation. “It is the time of jihad against this deadly virus. All government initiatives were to save the precious lives of people. We had fought such situation in devastating earthquake 2005 with steadfastness and this critical time will pass too”, the premier said. He urged masses to fully cooperate with government by following all required precautionary measures to defeat corona virus.

Raja Farooq Haider Khan di-

rected administration, health and other concerned departments to double their efforts against the epidemic. “Public must be aware about the corona pandemic. Screening system at all entry points of the state must be strengthened and keep liaisons with the all airports of the country to obtain the data of those returning to the state”, Haider further directed. He also directed to take special care of the laborers, daily wage staff and the marginalized segments of the society.

Earlier, SCC meeting reviewed the implementation status of the steps taken by the government to combat corona pandemic.

The meeting decided to suspend inter-provincial transport for three days from (Saturday) under health emergency imposed to prevent the threat of corona-virus.

against the spread of the virus. The responses to coronavirus cannot be based on human rights violations and a lack of transparency and censorship,” said Avinash Kumar, the group’s executive director.

SHODDY HEALTHCARE: The occupied region so far has confirmed four coronavirus cases, with over 2,000 people under observation, but what is concerning people more in the region is the badly equipped healthcare sector.

The primary healthcare centers

and district hospitals in the region are not very advanced in terms of infrastructure and manpower, and due to the large flow of rural patients into city hospitals in the region, the fear of an outbreak of the virus is looming.

“In case God forbid this virus spreads, it will be a catastrophe for the region,” a doctor at a hospital in Srinagar, who did not want be identified by name, told Anadolu agency.

He said the tertiary hospitals are already overloaded with patients and more isolation and treatment centers are needed, far from residential areas. He added that there is a dire need for life-saving equipment and ventilators in the region.

“If there is outbreak, it would be hard to stop it,” he warned.

To mitigate the crisis, the Kashmir Scholars Consultative and Action Network, an interdisciplinary group, wrote a letter to the World Health Organization seeking an immediate intervention in lifting sanctions on high-speed internet in the region.

In the letter, the scholars group

said that despite the region reporting multiple cases of COVID-19, the Indian government has criminally barred eight million residents of the region from accessing reliable and updated information by keeping restrictions on high-speed internet.

Apart from keeping the people of the region under information lockdown, health professionals and workers in the region are also not able to receive any advice or information regarding the pandemic, it added.

“The negligence of the Indian state towards Kashmiris can be explicitly seen as criminal and in fact, genocidal,” the group charged.

Kashmir Civitas, a civil society and advocacy group, called on the World Health Organization to press the Indian government to lift the communication siege and give Kashmiris access to the latest health updates.

Moreover, the Indian government is worsening the situation by avoiding testing at the entry points to IOJ&K and locking up citizens without adequate medical preparation, it said.

Panel formed to address child rights issues ISLAMABAD TLTP

The Ministry of Human Rights (MoHR) has constituted a working group, comprising relevant federal and provincial government representatives, civil society organizations (CSOs) and human rights activists, to address the issues related to child abuse and health malnutrition. The ministry has taken various initiatives on health safety in collaboration with various schools including London school of Economics, said an official of the ministry, according to state-run news agency.

He said that experts were making efforts to create

awareness at various schools about child abuse and exploitation. A massive awareness campaigns were conducted to educate, sensitize and create awareness about human rights particularly about child rights.

He said that in this regard a fact-finding report was prepared by London Schools of Economic and shared with the authorities concerned to address the issues of child abuse.

At ICT level, National Commission on child protection center is working to provide temporary, free psycho-social counseling, legal and medical aid to the victims of violence against women/girl child. The situational analysis on child abuse would be circulated with stakeholder for implementation, they said.

Sunday, 22 March, 2020

06 WORLD VIEW

The globAl rAce To develop A coronAvirus vAccine Der SPiegel

Veronika HackenbrocH, kerstin kullmann, martin scHlak und tHomas scHulz

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EAl Browning, a 46-year-old software engineer at Microsoft, isn't the kind of person who enjoys taking risks. But on Monday, he took on a new role - that of American hero. That's the day he became test-subject No. 2 in the very first vaccine study in the fight against the respiratory disease COVID-19, which is currently changing life as we know it all around the world.

At a clinic in Seattle, he was given an injection in his upper arm at shortly after 9 a.m. on Monday. It contained several micrograms of a substance known as mRNA1273. This possible vaccine from the U.S. company Moderna is designed to reprogram human cells for the controlled production of coronavirus proteins.

The idea is to simulate an infection with the novel pathogen so that the immune system can learn how to fight the virus – but without the sometimes-severe symptoms of a real coronavirus infection. A total of 45 subjects are to receive the test-vaccine in the next several weeks – but it will be months before it is known whether it actually works or not.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says it will likely take between 12 and 18 months until a vaccine against the novel coronavirus is widely available. And many experts now believe that only a vaccine can help defeat the virus and put an end to the global disruptions.

ACCELERATING DEVELOPMENT: A model published a few days ago by Imperial College london indicated that it would be possible to loosen quarantine measures once the exponential rise of COVID-19 infections begins to slow. But once that happened, a renewed increase in the number of infections would be unavoidable, according to the forecast, which could again lead to school closures, limitations on travel and event cancellations.

The international vaccine organization Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which also receives funding from the German Ministry of Education and Research, is thus doing everything it can to accelerate the development of a coronavirus vaccine. Thus far, CEPI is supporting eight research teams and companies with a total of $29.2 million, in addition to sharing their own expertise. Moderna is one of the companies they are funding, as is the Tübingenbased vaccine company CureVac. Still, it won't be easy to develop a vaccine against the novel coronavirus. "It is vital that the vaccine leads both to the production of antibodies and the activation of certain immune cells," says Volker Gerdts, director and CEO of the Canadian vaccine organiza-

tion VIDO-InterVac, which has been working on developing a coronavirus vaccine since January. "Only then can we expect it to be effective."

MODERN METHODS OF VACCINE DEVELOPMENT: The standard method that has been successfully relied on for decades – that of simply using a deactivated virus as a vaccine – could actually lead to particularly severe symptoms in the case of coronavirus. There is a risk that the vaccine could actually create antibodies that would make it easier for the pathogens to find their way into healthy cells. Weakening the novel virus enough that it could be used in a vaccine will also likely prove to be a challenge.

That is why there are only two vaccine candidates listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) that are taking this traditional approach. In total, the WHO list includes 41 research groups and pharmaceutical companies currently working as fast as they can to develop a vaccine – and all of the remaining 39 have chosen one of three modern methods for vaccine development.

With so-called vector-based vaccines, virus DNA is introduced into human cells with the help of a different virus. Researchers in Munich, for example, are trying to use a smallpox vaccine to transport DNA from the novel coronavirus – a method that has already been tested in a small study aimed at the related virus MERS-CoV. The new vaccine is to be ready for testing by the end of the year in an initial study

involving 30 test subjects at the University Clinic Eppendorf (UKE) in Hamburg.

Scientists at the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) are looking to use a measles vaccine as a coronavirus vehicle, while researchers at the University of Hong Kong are relying on a weakened flu virus.

Janssen Vaccines, a subsidiary of the U.S. pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, is using a virus that causes the common cold.

MASSIVE EXPANSION OF PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY: "We have applied the same platform in different programs, such as in our Ebola vaccine or in HIV treatments," says Hanneke Schuitemaker, head of vaccine discovery and translational medicine at Janssen Vaccines. The company is planning to launch its first coronavirus vaccine trial in October and is expecting first solid data by early 2021.

At the moment, the factory in leiden has the capacity to produce 300 million doses of vaccine per year. "But we are aware that that won't be enough," says Schuitemaker. The company is currently working toward a massive expansion of its production capacity.

There are also several research groups and companies working on the development of so-called subunit vaccines, which involve the injection of fragments of virus proteins.

Researchers at the U.S. company Novavax are currently in the process of reverse engineering the so-called spike-protein, also called s-protein, of the novel coronavirus. It is the main ingredient of the vaccine they are

A CRISIS ON THIS SCALE CAN REORDER SOCIETY IN DRAMATIC WAYS, FOR BETTER OR WORSE. HERE ARE SOME BIG THINKERS’ PREDICTIONS FOR WHAT’S TO COME

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BOON TO VIRTUAL REALITY: Elizabeth Bradley is president of Vassar College and a scholar of global health.

VR allows us to have the experiences we want even if we have to be isolated, quarantined or alone. Maybe that will be how we adapt and stay safe in the next outbreak. I would like to see a VR program that helped with the socialization and mental health of people who had to self-isolate. Imagine putting on glasses, and suddenly you are in a classroom or another communal setting, or even a positive psychology intervention.

EXPECT A POLITICAL UPRISING: Cathy O’Neil is founder and CEO of the algorithmic auditing company ORCAA and author of Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy.

The aftermath of the coronavirus is likely to include a new political uprising— an Occupy Wall Street 2.0, but this time much more massive and angrier. Once the health emergency is over, we will see the extent to which rich, well-connected and wellresourced communities will have been taken care of, while contingent, poor and stigmatized communities will have been thoroughly destroyed. Moreover, we will have seen how political action is possible—multitrillion dollar bailouts and projects can be mobilized quickly—but only if the cause is

to Ebola and Beyond.

In the best-case scenario, the trauma of the pandemic will force society to accept restraints on mass consumer culture as a reasonable price to pay to defend ourselves against future contagions and climate disasters alike. For decades, we’ve sated our outsized appetites by encroaching on an ever-expanding swath of the planet with our industrial activities, forcing wild species to cram into remaining fragments of habitat in closer proximity to ours.

That’s what has allowed animal microbes such as SARS-COV2—not to mention hundreds of others from Ebola to Zika—to cross over into human bodies, causing epidemics. In theory, we could decide to shrink our industrial footprint and conserve wildlife habitat, so that animal microbes stay in animals’ bodies, instead. More likely, we’ll see less directly relevant transformations. Universal basic income and mandatory paid sick leave will move from the margins to the center of policy debates.

The end of mass quarantine will unleash pent-up demand for intimacy and a mini baby-boom. The hype around online education will be abandoned, as a generation of young people forced into seclusion will reshape the culture around a contrarian appreciation for communal life.

THE INEQUALITY GAP WILL WIDEN: Theda Skocpol is professor of government and sociology at Harvard.

Discussions of inequality in America often focus on the growing gap between the bottom 99 percent and the top 1 percent. But the other gap that has grown is between the top fifth and all the rest—and that gap will be exacerbated by this crisis.

The wealthiest fifth of Americans have made greater income gains than those below them in the income hierarchy in recent decades. They are more often mem-

bers of married, highly educated couples.

As high-salary professionals or managers, they live in Internet-ready homes that will accommodate telecommuting—and where children have their own bedrooms and aren’t as disruptive to a work-from-home schedule. In this crisis, most will earn steady incomes while having necessities delivered to their front doors.

The other 80 percent of Americans lack that financial cushion. Some will be OK, but many will struggle with job losses and family burdens. They are more likely to be single parents or single-income households. They’re less able to work from home, and more likely employed in the service or delivery sectors, in jobs that put them at greater danger of coming into contact with the coronavirus. In many cases, their children will not gain educationally at home, because parents will not be able to teach them, or their households might lack access to the high-speed Internet that enables remote instruction.

LESS COMMUNAL DINING—BUT MAYBE MORE COOKING: Paul Freedman is a history professor at Yale and author, most recently, of American Cuisine: And How It Got This Way. For the past few years, Americans have spent more money on food prepared outside the home than on buying and making their meals. But, now, with restaurants mostly closed and as isolation increases, many people will learn or relearn how to cook over the next weeks. Maybe they will fall back in love with cooking, though I won’t hold my breath, or perhaps delivery will triumph over everything else. Sit-down restaurants also could close permanently as people frequent them less; it is likely there will be many fewer sit-down restaurants in Europe and the United States. We will be less communal at least for a while.

THE FIRST HUMAN TRIALS FOR A NEW CORONAVIRUS VACCINE HAVE ALREADY STARTED AS MYRIAD LABORATORIES ARE PURSUING A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT STRATEGIES TO STOP THE DISEASE. BUT INITIAL RESULTS AREN'T EXPECTED FOR SEVERAL MONTHS

Coronavirus will change the world permanently. Here’s how Politico Magazine

seeking to develop.

Gregory Glenn, the president of research and development, is hoping that the vaccine would continue to protect people even if the virus were to mutate and the s-protein were slightly changed. "Think about when you're in a packed subway train. The only thing you see is people's tops, their haircut," Glenn says. "If they change it, you may not recognize them anymore." His vaccine, he says, will ensure that immune systems develop antibodies for the entire protein. "It's as if the immune system could also remember the color of their ties and jackets," he says.

In the vaccine he is working on, Volker Gerdts from VIDO-InterVac is combining protein fragments from the coronavirus with an amplifier. "We tested a very effective MERS-CoV vaccine based on this principle on alpacas when the coronavirus began spreading in Wuhan," he says. "That's why we have decided to take this approach." He says tests on humans are to begin this fall.

Just like Novavax, Gerdts is also hoping for broad effectiveness. "We are hoping that this vaccine will allow us to vaccinate against several different coronaviruses at the same time," he says.

30,473 CHARACTERS: likely the newest method for developing vaccines, though, is one that relies on nucleic acids – essentially the virus's DNA. That is the approach being taken by the Tübingen-based company CureVac and the American companies Inovio and Moderna, which produced the vaccine being used in the Seattle study.

Their vaccine candidates primarily consist of the genetic information from coronavirus proteins. If you inject the nucleic acid strands into the human body, cells begin producing the necessary antigens themselves. It is an elegant idea, but one with significant uncertainties.

Kate Broderick, senior vice president of research and development at Inovio, received the most important information for the development of such a vaccine by email.

It arrived at the company's research center in San Diego on Jan. 10 and contained the new virus's entire genetic sequence. Chinese scientists had managed to decode the sequence in record time. On her monitor, Broderick saw an apparently random series of the four letters A, C, G and T – a series that extended for 30,473 characters.

The molecular geneticist loaded the series of letters into a special program and three hours later, the computer delivered the results: a design for a nucleic acids vaccine

– essentially instructions for the production of virus building blocks.

With the help of bacteria cultures, laboratory staff produced a liter of the new vaccine within just a few days. They performed experiments in cell cultures and planned trials on lab animals. When these initial results were analyzed, the company tightened its timeline and announced that it would begin an initial study on healthy people in April.

"A VERY AGGRESSIVE TIMELINE": Nucleic acids vaccines have a significant advantage in that millions of doses can be produced relatively quickly. But the technology does have a disadvantage: Thus far, not a single such vaccine has ever made it to the market. A potential Inovio vaccine against the respiratory illness MERS managed to trigger the production of the necessary antibodies in only 50 percent of the patients it was administered to.

Vaccine researcher Peter Hotez from Texas Children's Hospital, who participated in the development of a possible vaccine against the coronavirus SARS, is thus rather skeptical when it comes to the startup's promises. "The idea that it works within a year seems like a very aggressive timeline."

The Tübingen-based company CureVac, which is also developing a similar type of DNA-based vaccine, has thus far only ever tested a rabies vaccine on humans in a small study. The development of a MERS vaccine was no longer pursued once the epidemic subsided.

Now, though, CureVac intends to begin human trials of a coronavirus vaccine in Germany and Belgium in early summer. If it works, says Chief Production Officer Florian von der Mülbe, the company would be able to produce up to 10 million doses in a short amount of time. Additionally, the EU has pledged the company 80 million euros in funding so that production capacity could be ramped up to 2 to 4 billion doses.

TAKING NEW RISKS: The tug-o-war is likely only to get worse. But it remains unclear if companies that are currently in competition with one another will ultimately join forces to produce vaccines together.

In order to develop a vaccine as rapidly as possible, scientists, regulatory authorities, pharmaceutical companies and politicians must now take the kind of risks that were inconceivable only a short time ago. At a meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) in mid-February, representatives of public research facilities and pharmaceutical companies agreed that human trials should begin before all animal testing had been completed – representing the breaking of a strict taboo.

National agencies charged with approving new drugs and vaccines do not have to abide by that decision, but the decision sends a clear message, nonetheless. Neal Browning also received his vaccine dose even as important animal tests were still ongoing.

considered urgent. This mismatch of longdisregarded populations finally getting the message that their needs are not only chronically unattended, but also chronically dismissed as politically required, will likely have drastic, pitchfork consequences.

THE RISE OF TELEMEDICINE: Ezekiel J. Emanuel is chair of the department of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The pandemic will shift the paradigm of where our healthcare delivery takes place. For years, telemedicine has lingered on the sidelines as a cost-controlling, high convenience system. Out of necessity, remote office visits could skyrocket in popularity as traditionalcare settings are overwhelmed by the pandemic.

There would also be containment-related benefits to this shift; staying home for a video call keeps you out of the transit system, out of the waiting room and, most importantly, away from patients who need critical care.

THE RULES WE’VE LIVED BY WON’T ALL APPLY: Astra Taylor is a filmmaker and author of Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone.

America’s response to coronavirus pandemic has revealed a simple truth: So many policies that our elected officials have long told us were impossible and impractical were eminently possible and practical all along. In 2011, when Occupy Wall Street activists demanded debt cancellation for student loans and medical debt, they were laughed at by

many in the mainstream media. In the intervening years, we have continued to push the issue and have consistently been told our demands were unrealistic. Now, we know that the “rules” we have lived under were unnecessary, and simply made society more brittle and unequal.

All along, evictions were avoidable; the homeless could’ve been housed and sheltered in government buildings; water and electricity didn’t need to be turned off for people behind on their bills; paid sick leave could‘ve been a right for all workers; paying your mortgage late didn’t need to lead to foreclosure; and debtors could’ve been granted relief. President Donald Trump has already put a freeze on interest for federal student loans, while New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has paused all medical and student debt owed to New York State. Democrats and Republicans are discussing suspending collection on—or outright canceling—student loans as part of a larger economic stimulus package.

It’s clear that in a crisis, the rules don’t apply—which makes you wonder why they are rules in the first place. This is an unprecedented opportunity to not just hit the pause button and temporarily ease the pain, but to permanently change the rules so that untold millions of people aren’t so vulnerable to begin with.

MORE RESTRAINTS ON MASS CONSUMPTION: Sonia Shah is author of Pandemic: Tracking Contagions From Cholera

Sunday, 22 March, 2020

FOREIGN NEWS 07

NegotiatioNS lag oN $1 trillioN StimuluS for viruS-Hit uS WASHINGTON

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AGENCIES

UNDREDS of millions of people worldwide kicked off the weekend under a coronavirus lockdown, as the global death toll accelerated sharply and the World Health Organization warned the young they were “not invincible”.

The pandemic has completely upended lives across the planet, sharply restricting the movement of huge populations, shutting down schools and businesses, and forcing millions to work from home — while many have lost their livelihoods entirely.

While President Donald Trump insisted the United States was “winning” the war against the virus, individual states dramatically ramped up restrictions, with New York and Illinois joining California in ordering residents to stay home.

The virus death toll surged past 11,000 worldwide, with 4,000 alone in worst-hit Italy where the daily number of fatalities has shot up relentlessly over the past week.

While the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions are the hardest hit by the virus, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that young people were also vulnerable.

“Today I have a message for young people: you are not invincible. This virus could put you in hospital for weeks — or even kill you,” Tedros said. “Even if you don’t get sick, the choices you make about where you go could be the difference between life and death for someone else.” China on Saturday reported no new local infections for a third straight day, and the WHO said the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus emerged late last year, offered a glimmer of “hope for the rest of the world”.

But there are growing concerns of a new wave of “imported” infections in the region, with Hong Kong reporting 48 suspected cases on Friday –- its biggest daily jump since the crisis began. Many of them have a recent history of travel to or from Europe.

Across Europe, governments continued to rigorously enforce lockdown measures as the continent’s most celebrated boulevards and squares remained silent and empty even as warmer spring weather arrived.

Italy reported its worst single day, adding another 627 fatalities and taking its reported total to 4,032 despite efforts to stem the spread.

The nation of 60 million now accounts for 36 percent of the world’s coronavirus deaths and its death rate of 8.6 percent among confirmed infections is significantly

higher than in most other countries.

France, Italy, Spain and other European countries have told people to stay at home, threatening fines in some cases, while

Iran 'frees French researcher' in apparent prisoner swap PARIS AGENCIES

President Emmanuel Macron announced Saturday that Iran has freed a French researcher imprisoned in the Islamic republic after France released an Iranian threatened with extradition to the US. Macron “is happy to announce the release of Roland Marchal, imprisoned in Iran since June 2019” but he “urges the Iranian authorities to immediately free” fellow researcher Fariba Adelkhah, his office said.

France has for months demanded that Iran release Adelkhah, and her partner Marchal, who were detained last year accused of plotting against national security.

Their trial began in early March.

Adelkhah is a citizen of both Iran and France, but Tehran does not recognise dual nationality.

Iran has in recent months carried out prisoner exchanges with the US, Australia and Germany.

Marchal is due in France later Saturday, according to Macron’s office.

The Iranian judiciary’s news agency Mizan Online reported Iranian Jallal Rohollahnejad had been freed by France on Friday. Iranian state TV later said he was already on a flight back to Tehran.

Rohollahnejad, “an Iranian engineer incarcerated for more than a year in French prisons and accused of circumventing American sanctions against Iran, has been freed today,” the news agency added.

The French Court of Cassation had on March 11 approved “the request to extradite Rohollahnejad to the US, but the French government freed him, changing this decision”, it added. “Taking into account the cooperation of the (Iranian) judicial system’s intention to release a French detainee through reducing sentences, the French government” freed the Iranian engineer “in an act of mutual cooperation”, according to the report.

VIRUS FEARS: Adelkhah, 60, an anthropologist and expert on Shiite Islam, faces charges of “propaganda against the

system” and “colluding to commit acts against national security”, according to the researchers’ lawyer, Said Dehghan.

Her colleague Marchal, 64, a specialist on East Africa, is accused of the same national security charge, said the lawyer.

Their Paris-based support group and the French foreign ministry had sounded the alarm over the health of both detainees — Adelkhah went on hunger strike for 49 days and Marchal’s health is said to be deteriorating.

The support group has repeatedly said that the two are innocent of the charges

Bavaria became the first region in Germany to order a lockdown.

Britain, falling in line with its neighbours in the European Union, also an-

they face.

“We welcome with relief the arrival of Roland Marchal in Paris after nearly nine months of arbitrary detention in very difficult conditions, but only half of the path has been taken,” said Jean-Francois Bayart, a member of the committee and a professor at the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

He said “the fight continues” to secure Adelkhah’s release.

Adding to concerns for the welfare of the prisoners, Iran has been hard hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic, behind only Italy and China in the official number of fatalities.

Iran said Saturday that 123 more people had died from coronavirus, raising the country’s official death toll to 1,556.

PRISONER RELEASES: Ahead of Iran’s celebration of the Persian New Year starting Friday, authorities had released a number of international prisoners.

US Navy veteran Michael White was freed on Thursday. He was handed over in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad to a team from Switzerland, which represents US interests in the absence of diplomatic relations, and flown to the capital Tehran, the US State Department said.

Iran this week also freed for two weeks Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national who worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the media organisation’s philanthropic arm.

Iran is still holding US citizens Siamak Namazi — who was convicted on charges that include espionage and collaboration with the US government — his father Baquer and environmental expert Morad Tahbaz.

The Islamic republic in December freed Xiyue Wang, a US academic, in an exchange for scientist Massoud Soleimani and said it was open to further swaps.

nounced tougher restrictions, telling pubs, restaurants and theatres to close and promising to help cover the wages of affected workers.

LET'S GO TO BATTLE

New Slovak government takes office amid coronavirus fight BRATISLAVA AGENCIES

Slovak President Zuzana Caputova appointed a center-right coalition government on Saturday headed by Igor Matovic, leader of the Ordinary People (OLANO) party, after a February election which swept anti-corruption parties to power.

Matovic and his team were sworn in at a ceremony with participants wearing protective masks as a precaution against coronavirus. Slovakia has reported 137 cases of the virus this month with no deaths. The government handover comes as the coronavirus outbreak puts Europe on lockdown, pressuring Matovic’s four-party coalition to quickly agree a cabinet. “Nobody knows what form this (coronavirus) crisis will take, how long it will last and what consequences it will have,” Matovic said. “We have a remedy for the coronavirus – It’s solidarity, responsibility and the determination of all people who care about Slovakia,” he said. “Let’s go to battle.” Matovic, 46, takes over amid a public health crisis that led his predecessor Peter Pellegrini to ban international passenger travel, close schools and shutter most shops. The country is the world’s biggest per capita car producer but its four auto plants have all moved to suspend production due to the virus. The new government replaces the centerleft Smer party that has ruled since 2012, a period of solid growth, though its popularity slipped after the 2018 murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée which led to massive street protests.

Abortion activists in Poland fret as coronavirus curbs access WARSAW AGENCIES

Natalia Broniarczyk, an activist with a charity that assists Polish women who want to terminate pregnancies, says its hot line began ringing non-stop after the government announced border closures to stem the coronavirus outbreak last week.

Many callers were worried about their shipments of abortion pills, which are illegal in Poland, and others feared they would not be able to reach clinics abroad in time to have the procedure, which is unavailable in Poland in most cases.

“The idea that we would have to tell a woman that because of the pandemic she won’t be able to go abroad to have an abortion, as she had been planning to, was horrifying,” Broniarczyk said.

In the first couple of days her charity,

called Aborcyjny Dream Team, spoke to over a hundred women, compared to some 10 calls or fewer they take a day normally.

Staunchly Catholic Poland has some of the toughest abortion rules in Europe, with the procedure allowed only in the case of some fetal abnormalities, rape, incest or a threat to the mother’s health. Even when abortion is technically legal, some hospitals refuse to perform it, citing rules that allow doctors to refuse treatment when it contravenes their religious beliefs. Many women seek help and treatment abroad, a solution that becomes more difficult when governments restrict travel in the hope of limiting the spread of infection.

One woman Broniarczyk said was helped by a European network of abortion activists was 20 weeks pregnant, and had wanted to abort the fetus that doctors said would die shortly after birth because of severe deformities. She had been refused treat-

ment in Poland and was booked into a hospital in the Netherlands.

Travel restrictions made it impossible for her to reach the Netherlands in time, so the activists helped her get to Britain via Berlin.

When she reached Berlin, Justyna Wydrzynska, who, like also works at Aborcyjny Dream Team, contacted her.

“I called her and asked how she felt,” said Wydrzynska. “She said ‘fine’, but I could hear her voice trembling.”

GOVERNMENT SAYS RESTRICTIONS NECESSARY: Asked to comment on such activities, the spokesman for the Polish Ministry of Health said: “At a time of threat from an epidemic, the most important thing is to secure the health and life of millions of Poles. “At the core of our actions, as well as the actions of other countries, is to stop the rising number of infections.”

Sunday, 22 March, 2020

08 COMMENT

Apocalypse Now

PTI governmentt and coronavirus

Or yet to come?

There is no way if there is no will

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he Sindh Chief Minister’s appeal for a three-day voluntary lock down was highly successful on Saturday. Shopping areas and government and private offices remained closed in Karachi. People remained confined to their homes and there were few vehicles on the road. This showed that with a dedicated and persuasive leadership a longer lockdown is also feasible, provided the vulnerable sections of society are ensured free and regular supply of food and medicines.

In his address to the nation on Tuesday the Prime Minister had complained that the national economy was recovering from a very difficult time and it was therefore decided not to lock down the cities. It is apparently lack of will or loss of nerve on the part of Prime Minister Imran Khan, rather than paucity of resources, that stops the government from taking bold decisions. With big donations coming from the USA and China, and the World Bank and ADB together pledging $588 million for Pakistan’s fight against the pandemic, the government could have looked after the needs of the deserving during the period of lockdowns if it really wanted. Pakistanis’ philanthropy, that Mr Khan often talks about, could have also helped.

The Balochistan government has meanwhile announced partial lockdown. All shopping malls, crowded markets, restaurants as well as public transport within and between the cities, will remain closed for three weeks.

The two provinces directly ruled by the PTI have taken no credible measures to reduce social interaction which could exacerbate the spread of coronavirus. The Punjab government has not gone beyond restricting the public’s entry into parks and recreational spots like Murree. Shopping malls and hotels however remain open till 10 pm. Business areas in Lahore like hall Road continue to draw milling crowds till late in the evening.

There is no preparation for anything like a lockdown either in Punjab or KP. With coronavirus cases in Pakistan increasing at a fast speed, the federal government needs to review its position regarding free mixing of people and the need for sequestration of large sections of population for testing that alone can stop the fast advance of the disease in Pakistan.

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he global spread of coronavirus has already reached apocalyptic proportions. In Italy, the death toll has surpassed even that of China, the original epicentre of COVID-19. Advanced economies like the US, UK, France, Spain and Germany are badly affected with substantial number of deaths at the hands of the pandemic. how long Pakistan could have remained immune to it? When the first case of the deadly virus emerged in Sindh it was viewed as a ‘Sindh problem’. But lo and behold, soon the proverbial hit the fan.

Now, as is the nature of COVID 19 virus, it is multiplying exponentially all over the country. Three persons, two in KPK (Khyber Pakhtoon Khawa) and one on Sindh have already died at the hands of the deadly disease. how swiftly the pandemic is spreading can be judged from the latest count. It has ballooned manifestly from 28 on March 13 to over 700 within a week.

Those affected in the whole of South Asia are slightly less than in Pakistan. Naturally we have gone wrong somewhere in our efforts to tackle the virus.

This is alarming. Although the Sindh administration quickly rose to the challenge, the rest of the government at the centre and other provinces has been a little slow in meeting the threat.

Initially, ostensibly, the federal government was in a state of denial and now in a state of shock.

Full marks to SAPM (special assistant to the prime minister for health) Dr Zafar Mirza for making herculean efforts to announce measures to contain the spread of the corona virus. But he alone sans massive human and financial resources needed to meet the existential challenges- as a result of the rapid spread of the pandemic- couldn’t do much.

The government is now faced with multifarious fresh challenges. evolving a comprehensive and workable strategy is the foremost.

Secondly, there is a woeful lack of human and financial resources. But perhaps the third most important fallout is the imminent economic impact of the disaster.

The prime minister, since the advent of the pandemic, has only addressed the nation once. That also briefly and in a lacklustre manner.

All he had to say in the speech to warn his compatriots: Corona will spread but, ‘aap nei ghabraana nai hai’ (do not panic). A roadmap on how to meet the massive fallout in terms of human and economic

Administrative failures In the midst of a pandemic

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ORONAVIRUS has taken root in Pakistan and is spreading like wildfire with the number of confirmed patients rising sharply on a daily basis. All such patients have to be quarantined and so far, efforts to do so have been abysmal. Taftan, where most of the traffic from Iran came in, was a catastrophe, no matter how much Prime Minister Imran Khan tries to paint it as a success. Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab has been a similar failure with reports of dangerous conditions in the University where patients are being kept. Yesterday, allegedly on the incitement of a local PTI MPA, patients at the Sukkur quarantine facility, the hotbed for the cases in Sindh, the only province that had presumably done a relatively better job, broke out and dispersed into the on-looking crowds.

Although less dramatic, faux pas have also been reported in more urban cities. There are credible reports of delayed admission of patients who have tested positive for coronavirus at government hospitals In Lahore. Those who have been admitted in a timelier fashion have complained of lack of hygiene, and inadequate medical attention and sustenance. Private laboratories have to report all positive coronavirus tests, with names and addresses, to the authorities who then proceed to the patient’s residence, police van and ambulance in tow, to escort them to a quarantine facility. Those who are better informed about how the virus progresses and that milder cases can be treated at home, are avoiding getting testing done so as not to go through the same ordeal that has been revealed by several families in the city.

In the absence of a complete enforced lockdown and looking at the trajectory of confirmed cases reported so far, this is all set to become a full-blown crisis that will put extreme pressure on an already fragile and illequipped healthcare system. The technique that has worked in several countries is to buy time by containing the spread of the disease so that there is minimum pressure on hospitals. Clearly that is not happening. Very few people are self-isolating, putting potential high-risk patients, those with pre-existing conditions, in danger. Time is against the government, figuring out quarantining is only the first step and unfortunately the government is even failing at that, which is increasingly making the populace doubt its ability to control this unprecedented outbreak. It will only get worse if the response continues to be such as it has been in the past ten days.

The latest pandemic

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Editor Umar Aziz

Asher John

Executive Editor

Deputy Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

Rabia ahmed

he world is not new to pandemics. 165 to 180 AD it witnessed the Antonine Plague, probably smallpox. It killed about 5 million people. The Bubonic Plague in the 14th century killed about 200 million. Over centuries other plagues followed. There was SARS in 2003, and hIV-AIDS which has killed almost 35million persons.

In 1917, the year before the end of the First World War, hospitals and camps in several countries were crowded with injured soldiers and civilian casualties of war. It was said that in France a 100,000 soldiers came in and out of just one of its many hospitals.

That was when a new disease started spreading around the world, as a result of which many people died. It was identified as a strain of the ‘flu said to have started in infected poultry and transmitted to the pigs. Another opinion is that it went from birds to humans, and from there to the pigs.

As a result of the First World War, people moved around more than they would normally have done at the time and they carried infection from one place to another. There were also many injured persons who were more vulnerable to infection. The crowded hospitals and camps provided ideal conditions for the spread of this disease.

The USA was lucky that epidemic was never dubbed the ‘American ‘flu’, even though the 1918

Arif Nizami

Joint Editor

COVID-19 testifies to the fact that we are ill equipped to deal with such a crisis which can and does arise at any time, with no warning.

In Pakistan medical facilities are woefully inadequate to deal with routine matters. At this time when we need them most we find ourselves to be short in every sense of the word. What has the government, ‘flu is said to have started in the USA, a position sup- and more specifically the Ministry of health, been ported by several historians. But since it occurred so doing instead of preparing for eventualities which are soon after the end of the First World War, censorship by no means unusual? following the war played down its effects in the UK The situation in hospitals in the Punjab would be and USA to maintain morale and played up its effects comical if it weren’t so critically dangerous. There is in Spain – which had been hit no protocol in place in case of hard but had not participated in such an emergency, such as the the war. China in that instance protocol in place for events such saw the fewest cases of this flu as fires. People have no idea The situation has been in contrast to the Covid-19 this where to get themselves tested year. That ‘flu spread around the from and are shunted from wincompounded as always by world, assuming pandemic prodow to department in search of the religious fraternity which the correct destination. Kits are portions in 1918.

It is estimated that as a result in short supply, although that is has refused to allow of this pandemic anything beunderstandable, given that this is mosques to be shut down a new form of virus. tween 17 to 100 million persons died around the world. At least There are only a handful of for the period of this 12 million people died in Britishventilators, even though these emergency. So although ruled India, about 5 percent of its are urgently required in any population at the time. A large of respiratory illness. people have been asked to form section of the world population There is no concept of quarantoday has at least one ancestor isolate themselves as much tine, neither among the staff nor who died of the ‘flu at the time. public, and the state of hyas possible, they congregate the The situation then was eerily giene is as abysmal as always. every Friday similar to the present when the The administration and bureauCOVID-19 has immobilized crats are busy passing the blame much of the world. to anyone but their own selves.

So, the world has been there The situation has been combefore, and this situation in pounded as always by the reliwhich we find ourselves is nothing new. have we gious fraternity which has refused to allow mosques learnt anything from those pandemics? to be shut down for the period of this emergency. So Almost all those pandemics had a ‘pre-human although people have been asked to isolate themhost’, birds, rats, fleas, pigs, camels, and others, crea- selves as much as possible (not possible in case of the tures that spread the infection to humans. So you less affluent segment of society) they congregate would expect that we would already have better con- every Friday and pass the virus around. trol of food source. Diseases require quarantine facilPerhaps the most disgusting of all has been the oathities, attention to hygiene, and afterwards care both taking ceremony of the Chief Justice of the high Court financial and medical. Thousands of years later, none on the March 19, which hundreds of invitees attended of these things are at a satisfactory level. seated cheek by jowl in the city where Section 144 has Scientists and medical personnel have played been imposed. Clearly the law does not apply equally their role. Cures have been discovered, and doctors to all. But infectious diseases are much less discerning. and nurses regularly put themselves in harm’s way.

But have governments done their job?

Rabia Ahmed is a freelance columnist. Read more The pandemonium and scramble to deal with by her at http://rabia-ahmed.blogspot.co

There have been previous pandemics

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

aRif Nizami

costs of the spread of the COVID-19 was completely pression of 1929; interest rates were bound to come down. The US has already cut its interest rates to virmissing from his narrative.

One fails to comprehend why Khan shuns his tually zero.

We seem to be terribly slow in adopting a proacown media and doesn’t answer relevant (sometimes unpleasant) questions? his predecessor Nawaz Sharif tive approach in the face of new realities. Although would also avoid the media (except those his oil prices have dipped, the government is still mulling over how to pass the reduction to the consumers withfavourites) in the same manner.

The prime minister has appealed to international out disturbing its revenue stream.

As it is, meeting stringent IMF conditionalitiesfinancial institutions to write off loans of poor and resource deficient countries like Pakistan. But what is especially in the domain of tax revenue and fiscal still missing is a comprehensive stimulus plan for the deficit- was a virtual impossibility. But In the post business and industry and a relief package for those coronavirus order, the Fund demanding compliance adversely affected by the negative economic impact would be asking for the moon.

Steep revenue targets being envisaged in the next of the virus.

Most disappointing was the SPB (State Bank of budget will also be impossible to meet. An already Pakistan) governor Reza Baqir announcing a mere battered economy is simply too emaciated to have the capacity to pay increased taxes.

0.75 percent reduction in the Perhaps it’s time the governpolicy rate. At 12.50 percent ment makes a formal request to now, it is still too steep. the IMF to renegotiate the packAccording to most economists, with inflation bound to One fails to comprehend age that it is simply not able to follow nor pay back. A marginal come down as result of crude why Khan shuns his own increase in exports is going to be oil selling at a historic low of away in the changed inunder US dollar 30 per barrel, media and doesn’t answer whittled ternational economic scenario. the interest rate should have It is time to announce a stimbeen reduced to single digits in relevant (sometimes ulus package to restart the stalled order to have a real impact on the economy. unpleasant) questions? His engine of growth in order to stimulate domestic economic acBut Khan’s economic team predecessor Nawaz Sharif tivity. composed of former IMF (interSimilarly, millions of those, national Monetary Fund) and would also avoid the media including daily wagers, out of World Bank apparatchiks are fixated upon their own jaun- (except those his favourites) job as a result of impending shutdowns need to be provided diced mantra. Reza Baqir’s last in the same manner. with a safety net. appointment, before becoming BISP (Benazir Income Supgovernor State Bank, was as the port Programme) that the govhead of IMF’s office in egypt. ernment for reasons quite Under the strongman of obvious, prefers to call the egypt general Abdel Fattah el Sisi the formula of high interest rates was success- ehsaas programme, has proved itself quite incapable fully applied under an IMF program during Dr of performing its core task. Out of the Rs 274 billion Baqir's tenure. As a result, foreign investors were earmarked in the poverty alleviation programme, happy to park their sums in the Cairo treasuries for merely Rs 27 billion have been disbursed.

The rather bookish, albeit well-meaning chairperwindfall gains.

The same formula is being applied in Pakistan son of the BISP Sania Nishtar, has been too busy and it has attracted more than three billion dollars doing a forensic audit to unearth those not entitled, of ‘hot money’ to flow into the country’s coffers, of- misusing the programme; in the process throwing the fering a lot of support to the external account. But baby with the bathwater. There is need not only to inas predicted when the going started getting rough crease the outlay for BISP but also to make disbursethe fly by night operators decided to decamp with ments on a war footing.

With the COVID-19 virus spreading so rapidly, their funds.

According to SBP data, USD 1.28 billion has al- the government and its economic advisors should ready left the country. If interest rates have been only quickly outgrow their present state of inertia. Decimarginally reduced to prevent the hot money leaving sive steps should be taken without further ado. the country, the strategy simply has not worked.

Arif Nizami is Editor, Pakistan Today. He can be In the wake of the latest recessionary world economy that is being compared by some to the great de- contacted at arifn51@hotmail.com.

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Sunday, 22 March, 2020

COMMENT 09 Editor’s mail Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively

Are others deciding what subjects are better for our future?

NOWADAyS, as education is widespread and many advancements are made there also comes new jobs meaning new ideas, new problems. What can I do, and is this really right for me? Do I really want to do this? As segregation of careers began so did urging specific fields. A good example of this is engineers and doctors. It can also be illustrated by popular culture.

Many famous movies have hinted that many engineers are simply doing it to please someone, mainly their parents. All because of prejudice and strict enforcement. For doctors and mainly medical related jobs eg nurses, regret their decision at least once in their life. This could be due to our colonial mindset but that is a story for another day. This all could've been prevented with simple communication. Here is where A Penny for your thoughts comes in— A Penny for your Thoughts is a project made to spread the idea of individuality, self-improvement and independence. It strives to help students find their own path and to create new opportunities for themselves and urges parents to encourage, not enforce. It wishes to create a place for people to dream and make their dreams a reality rather than remain in somebody else's want. We wish to guide parents to let their children select the subjects of their own choice so that in the future, they can live without regretting their choice.

For students, they should try their best to stay with their choices and voice out their opinion about the subjects they want to choose in their o levels or matric. According to us, if everyone chooses the subjects of their own choice then later in life they would not regret their choice and would happily pursue the career of their choice.

Times of trial, times of travail Let’s put off petty politics for another occasion

Candid Corner Raoof Hasan “Someone I once loved gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.”

—Mary Oliver

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OVID-19, declared a pandemic, has virtually impacted every country of the world with some suffering more than others. No one really knows what is in store for tomorrow. People of all dispensations are busy trying to stay safe from the onslaught as scientists struggle to find a curative vaccine.

In the face of an existential threat as that COVID-19 poses, nations are likely to unite behind the singular objective of defeating it. In this effort, they are guided by their political leaders.

The contemporary media, with its reach and influence, is a key factor in mobilising them around the common cause. Then there is the government which has to chalk out the strategy and provide the resources and expertise to overcome the threat.

What do we have here in Pakistan? We have a trail of leaders who are brazenly politicising the pandemic, a media that is spreading disinformation and playing a devastatingly divisive role and a government which is struggling with paucity of resources and wherewithal. I heard a senior PPP leader proclaiming that he would do politics on corona, he would do politics even in a mosque, and those who don’t want to do that should leave the country. In highlighting such grossness, the media’s conduct is infected with an overdose of malevolence with the anchors combining the pretensions of being clairvoyants, experts and pontiffs.

This is why even an existential threat like COVID-19 has been criminally politicised.

While politicians may do it as a matter of professional right, it is the institution of the media which, ever so consciously, is jeopardising every effort that is made to combat the threat. There are caustic insinuations flying around that the government is not fully abreast of the gravity of the situation, or it is not sincere in averting the crisis, or it is discriminating among the provinces, or its performance has been below par. Even the Prime Minister’s speech has been

subjected to scathing criticism. A cartoon has ap- Khan so much that they stoop low to use language peared in a leading national daily showing the which is construed as beneath human dignity? chief ministers of the provinces taking their po- While they criticise the Prime Minister for not sitions on the victory stand to advance a pre-or- coming up with a financial relief package during his speech, they are neither willing to see why the chestrated narrative.

Even the judiciary has started making caus- country is so heavily indebted, nor do they agree tic comments with political undertones. In one to talk about the criminal loot and plunder that it such instance, the Chief Justice has held the gov- was subjected to during the periods when oliernment responsible over its “inability to contain garchs Zardari and Nawaz ruled. They speak of the coronavirus at the border leading to an out- the incompetence of NAB, but are unwilling to break in the country”. In a similar vein, another talk about the manner in which institutional credone of the judicial tribe had asked the govern- ibility and competence were grossly comproment to provide certification to the effect that mised during these previous tenures so that they nothing would happen to Nawaz Sharif over a would not pose a challenge to the dictatorial and certain period of time. What are the judges up corrupt indulgences of the despots.

But, it is the Prime Minister alone who is to to? Where do they want the country to be headed? The manner in which they belittle the blame just because he does not see things the executive branch as a matter of routine is highly way his predecessors did. Let me enact a comcondemnable. They hardly have a laudatory past parison here. In her address to the German peoto flaunt. While they were quite accustomed to ple, Chancellor Angela Merkel highlighted the taking instructions on telephone, the lowest significance of the rampaging scourge. She cautioned her people that “this point has been their comis serious”. She then urged plicity which legalised milthem to also “take it seriitary take-overs in the ously”. This is termed as a country. They protect their model of leadership, and corrupt colleagues and This is not a time to pour rightly so. But, when Prime wouldn’t check the ramMinister Khan makes a pant hooliganism of the sarcasm on the efforts of similar plea, he gets no lawyer community, even credit. Instead, he is blamed their daylight attacks on the government. It is time for not announcing a relief hospitals resulting in unforpackage. Such is the duplictunate deaths of patients. to encourage it to do ity and such the hypocrisy They have a role to play which they must, but more. It is the unity and of the tribe of evil-mongers whose spite and venom are they should not act beyond homogeneity among the all meant only for seeing the call of duty and the the back of one person.

Constitution. It is time people and institutions This is not a time for they hold themselves back creating artificial divisions and begin operating within which would make an simply because someone their domain as stipulated does not look at things the in the statue book. I have impregnable bulwark way others do. It is time often pleaded for introducing parliamentary overagainst the danger that is for uniting the nation to face this scourge because sight of their appointment upon us it is only then that there and performance. The would be a chance of beatgovernment is strongly ing it. A divided people urged to take steps to make will fall easy prey to the that possible. onslaught.

As expected, all guns We all know that there is scarcity of reseem to be pointed in the direction of the Prime Minister as if he is the one who has brought this sources. The government is not in a position to scourge upon the country. Any defence of the inject millions into the economy. I am certain government is anathema to the proponents of that it will do its utmost to alleviate the sufferthis vile and divisive narrative with the specific ings, particularly of the impoverished segments objective of rendering the Prime Minister con- of the society. This is not a time to measure the troversial. My last Sunday piece is an example working of one province against the other/s and which exposed the rapacious smallness of some grade them accordingly. It is time to urge them so-called champions of democracy and civil to coordinate their efforts to defeat the scourge rights. Their comments reflected huge quotients together. This is not a time to pour sarcasm on of hate and spite for an individual whose suc- the efforts of the government. It is time to encess may spell political demise for many. Even courage it to do more. Most importantly, in these more disappointing has been the excessively times of trial and travail, it is the unity and hoopinionated, crass and insinuating narrative that mogeneity among the people and institutions most of them used in their posts. While I accept which would make an impregnable bulwark it all as a matter of their right, it may be time against the danger that is upon us. Let’s put off for them to look inwards and evaluate where petty politics for another occasion. this excessive venom is coming from and why?

The writer is a political and security strateThat may mellow them down a little and expose them to a necessary reappraisal of their perspec- gist, and heads the Regional Peace Institute – tive and understanding of others as what they an Islamabad-based think tank. Email: raoofhasan@hotmail.com.

Twitter: are, and what they stand for.

Why is it that such-like people hate Imran @RaoofHasan

ZaInab VIRk LaHORE

Banning guns THIS is something I feel very strongly about. There is no need to own a weapon of war in your house. Having a gun in the house along with a small child leaves the possibility of the young child getting ahold of the gun and seriously harming (even killing) themselves and or others.

Secondly, no matter how many background checks are done on a person, we can never accurately determine their mental stability. This means that people with serious mental health problems can get a gun with the intention of hurting others. Guns only lead to more trouble. Some police in Pakistan injured innocent people because they "thought they were carrying a gun".

Guns are protection. They help me feel safe. The fact that guns are legal means that someone can hurt you without having to be anywhere near you and you might not even be aware. Learn to run and fight, ban guns and then you will be even safer.

MIdRa kHan kaRacHI

Politics of pandemic THE pandemic, as the World Health Organisation (who) officially declared it this week, is spreading fast, with almost 198,426 cases and nearly 7,987 deaths in 135 countries outside China. Few of today’s political leaders have ever faced anything like a pandemic and its economic fallout— though some are evoking the financial crisis of 2007-09 (see next leader).

As they belatedly realise that health systems will buckle and deaths mount, leaders are at last coming to terms with the fact that they will have to weather the storm. Three factors will determine how they cope: their attitude to uncertainty; the structure and competence of their health systems; and, above all, whether they are trusted.

The uncertainty has many sources. One is that sars-cov-2 and the disease it causes, covid-19, are not fully understood (see Briefing). Another is over the status of the pandemic. In each region or country it tends to proliferate rapidly undetected. By the time testing detects cases in one place it will be spreading in many others, as it was in Italy, Iran and South Korea. By the time governments shut schools and ban crowds they may be too late.

China’s solution, endorsed by the who, was to impose a brutal quarantine, bolstered by mass-testing and contact tracing. That came at a high human and economic cost.

The United States, despite its wealth and the excellence of its medical science, faces hurdles. Its private system is optimised for fee-paying treatments. America’s 28m uninsured people, 11m illegal immigrants and an unknown number without sick pay all have reasons to avoid testing or isolation. Red tape and cuts have fatally delayed adequate testing (see United States section). Uncertainty will be a drag on the third factor—trust. Trust gives leaders licence to take difficult decisions about quarantines and social-distancing, including school closures. In Iran the government, which has long been unpopular, is widely suspected of covering up deaths and cases. That is one reason rebellious clerics could refuse to shut shrines, even though they spread infection (see Middle East & Africa section).

Nothing stokes rumour and fear more than the suspicion that politicians are hiding the truth. When they downplay the threat in a misguided attempt to avoid panic, they end up sowing confusion and costing lives. yet leaders have struggled to come to terms with the pandemic and how to talk about it.

President Donald Trump, in particular, has veered from unfounded optimism to attacking his foes. This week he announced a 30-day ban most travel from Europe that will do little to slow a disease which is already circulating in America. As people witness the death of friends and relatives, he will find that the pandemic cannot be palmed off as a conspiracy by foreigners. In the West covid-19 is a challenge to the generation of politicians who have taken power since the financial crisis. Many of them decry globalisation and experts. They thrive on division and conflict. In some ways the pandemic will play to their agenda. Countries may follow America and turn inward and close their borders. In so far as shortages crimp the world economy, industries may pull back from globalisation—though they would gain more protection by diversifying their supply chains. yet the pandemic also puts doctors, scientists and policy experts once again at the heart of government. Pandemics are quintessentially global affairs. Countries need to work together on treatment protocols, therapeutics and, it is hoped, a vaccine. Worried voters may well have less of an appetite for the theatrical wrestling match of partisan politics. They need their governments to deal with the real problems they are facing—which is what politics should have been about all along.

SyEd TaHIR RaSHdI SHaHdaPuR

Sunday, 22 March, 2020

10 FOREIGN NEWS

Poor INdIaNs flee to vIllages as coroNavIrus measures taKe heavy toll MUMBAI

t

AGENCIES

HOUSANDS of poor city migrants whose livelihoods have collapsed due to India’s coronavirus measures headed back to their villages on Saturday, raising fears that the exodus could carry the virus to the countryside. About one fifth of India’s 271 confirmed coronavirus cases has been reported in the western state of Maharashtra — home to Mumbai, the country’s largest city and economic powerhouse. So far, India has registered four deaths due to the virus.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged Indians to stay at home to fight the outbreak. Maharashtra state authorities ordered on Friday the closure of all shops and offices, apart from those providing essential services, until March 31.

For Indians who drive rickshaws or run food stalls, the economic shock of such control measures has been huge, pushing them to leave for family homes where they typically do not pay rent and food is cheaper.

“Work has stopped. I’ll go back and work on the farm,” said Rakesh Kumar Gupta, 40, who sells mosquito nets and was heading back to his family house in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

On Saturday, hundreds of people,

many young men wearing masks and lugging backpacks, jostled in long queues to board trains at Mumbai’s Lokmanya Tilak Terminus station.

India’s state-run railway operator laid on 17 special train services starting on Friday to ferry people out of the Mumbai area to eastern and northern India, spokesman Shivaji Sutar said.

Health specialists say large-scale population shifts to rural areas could hasten the spread of coronavirus in India, a country of 1.3 billion people with weak public health care – especially in the countryside.

India has about 120 million migrant laborers, according to labor rights group Aajiveeka.

“This really is the beginning of community spread, assuming there haven’t been forerunners,” said Dr. Rajib Dasgupta, a professor of community health at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. The Indian Railways spokesman said they were screening passengers and had trained workers on board in case of emergencies. But anxious travelers were cramming into overcrowded trains, according to a Reuters witness, likely increasing the chances of infection.

Highlighting the risk, the Ministry of Railways on Saturday tweeted that a dozen people who had traveled by train in the last few days had tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday.

“Passengers are advised to avoid non-essential travel for the safety of fellow citizens,” the ministry added.

India’s Health Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The virus is underlining the difficult trade-offs countries must make when trying to contain the pandemic, with many fearing that India’s poorest people will be severely hit.

“Some people will die of the virus.

The rest of us will die of hunger,” said taxi driver Sanjay Sharma on an empty Mumbai street, adding he would travel to the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, where his family owns a small apple orchard.

Pentagon successfully tests hypersonic missile WASHINGTON AGENCIES

The United States announced Friday it has successfully tested an unarmed prototype of a hypersonic missile, a nuclearcapable weapon that could accelerate the arms race between superpowers.

The Pentagon said a test glide vehicle flew at hypersonic speeds — more than five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5 — to a designated impact point.

The test followed the first joint US Army and Navy flight experiment in October 2017, when the prototype missile demonstrated it could glide in the direction of a target at hypersonic speed.

“Today we validated our design and are now ready to move to the next phase towards fielding a hypersonic strike capability,” Vice Admiral Johnny Wolfe said in a statement.

Hypersonic weapons can take missile warfare, particularly nuclear warfare, to a new — and, for many, frightening — level. They can travel much faster than current nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles at low altitudes, can switch direction in flight and do not follow a predictable arc like conventional missiles, making them much harder to track and intercept.

Even as conventionally armed, nonnuclear weapons, they are viewed by analysts as raising the danger of conflict, because an adversary might not know

how they are armed when launched.

The Pentagon is pressing to catch up with rivals Moscow and Beijing in the race to develop hypersonics, even as it recognizes they could dangerously raise the risks of a nuclear conflict, as countries struggle to build defenses against them.

In its fiscal 2021 budget the US Defense Department requested $3.2 billion for hypersonic programs, up from $2.6 billion in the current year. The goal is a deployable hypersonic capability by 2023, though that could be difficult.

“Delivering hypersonic weapons is one of the department’s highest technical

research and engineering priorities,” the Pentagon said.

RUSSIA LEADING THE RACE: The joint Army-Navy test was carried out on March 19 from the Pacific Missile Range facility in Kauai, Hawaii. The test was for the military’s common-hypersonic glide body, or C-HGB weapon, designed to be launched from a rocket that could be land-, air- or sea-based.

“The glide body tested today is now ready for transition to Army and Navy weapon system development efforts,” said Mike White, the assistant director of the hypersonics program.

In December, Russia declared it had

placed into service its first Avangard hypersonic missile, making it the first country to claim an operable hypersonic weapon.

Russian officials claimed that in tests it had reached speeds of up to Mach 27, roughly 20,500 miles (33,000 kilometers) per hour.

China is also investing significantly in their development. Last October it displayed its DF-17 hypersonic glide vehicle in its national day military parade.

The US military is meanwhile pouring money into advanced missile defense research to find ways to protect against hypersonics.

A senior NATO official warned that in a hypersonic missile strike, it may not even be clear what the target is “until there’s a boom on the ground.”

NEW ARMS RACE: In January the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists advanced its “Doomsday Clock,” its assessment of the risk of nuclear holocaust, in part due to the rising threat of hypersonic weapons.

“There is increasing investment in and deployment of hypersonic weapons that will severely limit response times available to targeted nations and create a dangerous degree of ambiguity and uncertainty,” it said.

“This uncertainty could lead to rapid escalation of military conflicts. At a minimum, these weapons are highly destabilizing and presage a new arms race.”

North Korea fires two 'ballistic missiles' into sea PYONGYANG AGENCIES

North Korea fired what appeared to be two shortrange ballistic missiles off its east coast on Saturday, the latest in a series of such launches by Pyongyang as the world struggles with the coronavirus pandemic.

The South Korean military condemned the launches as “extremely inappropriate given the difficult situation the world is experiencing due to COVID-19…

We urge them to stop immediately.” North Korea has not reported any cases of the coronavirus, which has turned into a major crisis with 11,300 deaths and more than 270,000 infections worldwide. There has been widespread speculation, however, that the virus has reached the isolated nation, and health experts have warned that it could devastate the country given its weak medical infrastructure and widespread malnutrition. Japan’s defense ministry also confirmed the North Korean launches. For decades, North Korea’s leadership has faced international criticism for prioritising spending on its military and nuclear weapons program instead of providing for the population — even during times of famine. Pyongyang considers its military development necessary for security in the face of what it describes as American aggression. North Korea is under multiple sets of punishing sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs.

Hopes for a thaw after meetings between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump were dented as they failed to produce any substantial progress on denuclearising the Korean peninsula, and Pyongyang has since continued to refine its military capabilities, analysts say. With the latest launch Pyongyang “continues an international strategy of trying to normalise its missile tests”, Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, told AFP. ‘DRACONIAN RESTRICTIONS’: Shortly before the launch, North Korea’s official news agency KCNA reported that the rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, would convene on April 10. The event would involve gathering nearly 700 officials in one place, analysts said. Such events have been banned in many parts of the world to curb the spread of the coronavirus. “North Korea would not risk holding such a large-scale national political event if the regime was not confident about preventing or containing the spread of the virus,” Rachel Minyoung Lee, a senior analyst at specialist website NK News, told AFP. Earlier this month, Kim Jong Un sent a letter to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, offering “comfort” as Seoul battled what was the worst outbreak of the virus outside China at the time. South Korea has since largely brought the outbreak under control. Despite North Korea insisting it does not have a single case of COVID-19, Pyongyang’s “draconian restrictions on movement, mask-wearing propaganda, public punishment of ‘corrupt’ elites violating quarantine efforts, and rush to build medical facilities suggest COVID-19 has penetrated the country,” Ewha University’s Easley said.

Country music legend Kenny Rogers dies at 81 LOS ANGELES AGENCIES

Country music legend Kenny Rogers, whose career spanned six decades, has died at the age of 81, his family said late Friday.

“Rogers passed away peacefully at home from natural causes under the care of hospice and surrounded by his family,” they said in a statement.

The family said they were planning a small private service “out of concern for the national COVID-19 emergency.”

Kenny Rogers left an indelible mark on the history of American music.

“His songs have endeared music lovers and touched the lives of millions around the world,” said the statement posted by his representative Keith Hagan. A three-time Grammy winner who sold tens of millions of records, Rogers was known for a string of huge hits including “The Gambler,” “Lucille” and “Islands in the Stream.”

“I’ve never considered myself a great

singer, but I do have a certain way as a storyteller,” he told the Irish Examiner in 2013. “I’ve been very lucky in finding

many great songs that have had a staying power, and have lingered longer in the heart.” Released in 1978, his album “The

Gambler” was a huge international hit, going multi-platinum and the title track became his signature song. “I do two kinds of songs,” he told NPR in 2015.

“There’s story songs that have social significance, or they’re ballads that say what every man would like to say and every woman would like to hear.”

I DONT GAMBLE: Rogers also starred the film “The Gambler,” which was based on the song, but he liked to joke that he wasn’t much of a gambler himself. “I learned a long time ago, I can’t win enough money to excite me, but I can lose enough to depress me,” he told NPR. “So I don’t gamble.”

He played his final concert at Nashville in October 2017, where he was joined by his long-time friend and collaborator Dolly Parton for a last performance of “Islands in the Stream.”

In April 2018 Rogers scrapped the final dates of his farewell tour due to health concerns.

“I didn’t want to take forever to retire,” the singer said.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to say farewell to fans over the course of the past two years,” he said, adding that he could “never properly thank them for the encouragement and support they’ve given me throughout my career.”

Born in a housing project in Houston, Texas, Rogers started his career in the late 1950s and quickly became active in rockabilly, jazz and other genres that he brought into his country style.

He went on to have 24 number one hits and was a six-time Country Music Association Awards winner.

In 2013 Rogers was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, which said he had “parlayed a distinctive, husky voice and laid-back sex appeal into durable superstardom.”

His easygoing ballads and constant touring won him mainstream pop appeal, as have his popular takes on Christmas standards.

Rogers also came to prominence through his collaboration with Parton and appearances on films and television programs including “The Muppet Show.

In 2012 he published a memoir recounting the ups and downs of his long career: “Luck or Something Like It.”

Sunday, 22 March, 2020

BUSINESS 11

TExTilE ExPoRTERs FEaR 'sEvERE liquiDiTy CRisis' amiD gloBal PoRT ClosuREs LAHORE

FBR-Peshawar posts 100pc surge in FED collection PESHAWAR AZIZ BUNERI

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)-Peshawar has posted a 100pc surge in the collection of federal excise duty, as the department collected Rs1.92 billion from tobacco companies during the first eight months of the current financial year. Talking to this scribe, FBR Land Revenue Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Tariq said for the first time in the history of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, FED collection has increased by 100pc in eight months. In the last fiscal, the FBR-Peshawar had collected Rs1.75 billion in total. However, during the first eight months of the current financial year, around Rs1.8 billion has been received from 17 tobacco companies. He said during the coming four month, the department would collect an additional Rs1 billion FED. Meanwhile, sources in the FBR have informed that due to an ineffective border management system, a high amount of cigarettes are being smuggled from Afghanistan into the country which not only causes the local manufacturers to suffer billions of rupees in losses but also hurts the government in terms of FED, sales tax, income tax evasion. The government had recently ordered the strengthening of border management and prevention of goods smuggling. Despite the presence of all officials at Torkham border, the government couldn’t curb cigarette smuggling, sources maintained. They said that if smuggling was stopped, the income from federal excise duty, sales tax, income tax from tobacco could be increased by 200pc. “A few years ago, tax on tobacco trash was increased from Rs10 to Rs300 per Kilogramme, but the ministers in KP government, who were associated with tobacco business, intervened and reduced it back to Rs10. If it increases from Rs10 to Rs100, the government can earn billions of rupees per annum,” an official source said. Currently, there are 25 tobacco companies operating in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa -- seven tobacco trashing factories, one field rod and 17 cigarette-making factories.

China to stimulate private investment, accelerate infrastructure development BEIJING: China will cut fees on a large scale to stimulate private-sector investment and also accelerate the development of “new infrastructure” to help spur the economy, Chinese government officials said on Saturday.

China will further develop 5G, construct more data centers and build smart cities as part of the new infrastructure push, Zheng Jian, an official at the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at a briefing. Another NDRC official, Hong Ou, said 89.1pc of major infrastructure and natural resources projects had resumed operation as of March 20, excluding Hubei province, the epicenter of the country’s coronavirus outbreak. A total of 1.848 trillion yuan ($260.47 billion) of local government bonds have been front-loaded so far in 2020, including 1.29 trillion yuan of special bonds, used by local governments to finance infrastructure development, Song Qiuling, an official at the finance ministry, said at the briefing. AGENCIES

T

HASSAN NAQVI

ExTILE exporters fear zero sales turnover as all international markets, including the European Union and the United States, have closed port operations in wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

In line with the rest of the world, many textile industries across the country have also halted their operations either completely or partially, sources told Pakistan Today on Saturday.

Talking to this scribe, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Punjab Vice-Chairman Aamir Sheikh said, “The government must understand that our sales revenues have almost gone to zero and we cannot run without a cash injection.”

He disclosed that the overseas buyers have stopped giving export orders to all markets for up to a period of three months. Any export package at this stage is as good as useless, he added.

“What we need now is a package that keeps the industry alive; liquidity is ensured so that unemployment and layoffs could be avoided,” he said. “We also want payments of all loans, interests, taxes and govt levies to be deferred, zero-rating to be resorted and pending refunds released.”

Agreeing with Sheikh, APTMA Punjab Senior Vice Chairman Abdul Rahim Nasir said some textile exporters have closed their operations for three to five days to get a clear picture of the scenario.

“Most of them have gone below 50pc [capacity] just to keep the factory

EXPORTERS DEMAND PAYMENTS OF ALL LOANS, INTERESTS, TAXES AND GOVT LEVIES TO BE DEFERRED, ZERO-RATING TO BE RESORTED AND PENDING REFUNDS RELEASED AT THE EARLIEST

in working condition,” Nasir said.

“What need a package that resolve our cash flow issues.”

Nasir demanded that the minimum tax (turnover tax) must be reduced to zero per cent (completely waived off) till June 30 as presently it is applicable even if the companies are making losses. He further said that Export Refinance Facility (ERF) limits should be increased and payments of interest should be extended beyond June 30.

Nasir further demanded that the government must ensure sales tax and drawback on local taxes and levies

(DLTL) payments to industry within two weeks.

Talking to this scribe, APTMA Group Leader Gohar Ijaz noted that out of the total $14 billion textile exports, $10 billion is subject to 12.5pc interest rate.

“As there will be no exports for the next three to six months due to the closure of international ports, The textile sector won’t be able to survive unless the government announces a moratorium on interest and repayments for the entire textile chain and manufacturing sector.”

Naveed Gulzar, a textile miller from Faisalabad, said unfortunately,

textile exporters’ sales revenue is likely to go to zero in the next week or so.

Gulzar said in the value chain there are indirect exporters who feed raw materials to direct exporters such as spinning mills.

“These mills have to borrow at normal bank rate, which is kibor plus bank margin, and their markup cost is 16pc.

When direct exporters will be suspending their productions, the hardest hit will be on indirect exporters,” he said.

The textile millers demanded that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) should immediately reduce mark-up of indirect exporters close to the rate of ERF and the government should extend date for filing the income tax and sales tax to at least 60 days.

Gulzar said that if the government wants that the wheel of industry keeps on moving, it should also defer the payments of local taxes such as Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) social security for three months.

“Without extending the date of filing sales tax returns by at least two months and immediately issuing notification regarding the provision of electricity at 7.5cents per Kwh (all-inclusive) to export sectors, issues cannot be resolved,” he said. “If decisions are not taken on time, it may lead to an even bigger crisis.”

Gulzar said that the textile sector realises its social responsibility and APTMA Faisalabad chapter will be assisting local administration in providing protective gear to hospital staff and will assist them in testing suspected patients.

“It will also provide food to people who would be jobless due to this pandemic.”

Economist Atif Mian suggests 'national lockdown' to combat COVID-19 KARACHI MEIRYUM ALI

Atif Mian, Pakistani-American economist and former member of the prime minister's economic team, has suggested several action steps in order to combat the spread of COVID-19 in Pakistan.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, the economist advised the government to take bold steps if they want to save citizens from the pandemic. As of 21 March, Pakistan has 543 cases of coronavirus.

"Pakistan is on an explosive coronavirus trajectory and needs to take immediate, bold and clear-headed steps to protect its people and the economy," said Mian.

He suggested that Pakistan implement a national lockdown, shutting all non-essential activities and gatherings

to stop contagion. “This act will buy you essential time to build critical ca-

pacities and plan ahead,” he said.

Mian also called for the testing and

healthcare capacity to be improved, besides the smooth flow of food and medicine supply chains.

“Train health workers for contacttracing, re-purpose buildings for recovery wards etc. Bring all resources to bear on this. It is testing and certainty of safety that will allow country to return to normalcy,” he tweeted.

He said the private sector, NGOs, and social protection programs, like Benazir Income Support Programme, should rally together and protect the most vulnerable.

“The continuous testing and contact-tracing will tell you when and where you can start easing up to bring the economy towards normalcy. This will be a test of will and competence.

Thousands, perhaps millions, of lives depend on it,” he warned.

EU executive moves to formalise suspension of budget rules BRUSSELS AGENCIES

The European Union executive moved to formalize a deal reached by EU finance ministers on March 5 to suspend EU budget rules that limit borrowing, giving hardesthit Italy and other governments a free hand to fight the coronavirus.

The European Commission, the guardian of EU rules, proposed late on Friday to activate a ‘general escape clause’ in the rules to respond to the pandemic, which has triggered lockdowns in most EU countries and the closure of Europe’s borders.

“It will allow Member States to undertake measures to deal adequately with the crisis, while departing from the budgetary requirements that would normally apply under the European fiscal framework,” the Commission said.

EU rules say that governments have to keep cutting their budget deficits until they reach balance or surplus, and have to reduce their public debt/GDP ratio every year until it is at or below 60% of GDP. Italy has been struggling to reduce its

huge debt of 137% of GDP due to sluggish economic growth and additional spending to offset the effects of the epidemic would have normally drawn a rebuke by the Commision.

“The Italian government will be able to put as much money into the economy as needed. Normal budget rules, debt rules for example, will not be applied at this stage,” Commission head Ursula von der Leyen was quoted as telling Il Corriere della Sera paper.

Once the Commission proposal is formally accepted by EU finance ministers at their next meeting, government spending to fight the coronavirus will be excluded from Commission calculations of deficit and debt.

EU finance ministers, who have ultimate control of EU rules that limit government borrowing, agreed on March 5 that the economic impact of the virus was an emergency and an event outside their control, meaning EU budget rules should not apply.

They repeated that message on Monday, agreeing that the rules will not stand in the way of responding to the pandemic, which the Commission expects to cause a 1.0%2.5% recession in Europe this year.

Sunday, 22 March, 2020

12 BUSINESS Germany prepares €150bn emergency budget in coronavirus package BERLIN AGENCIES

Germany is readying an emergency budget worth more than 150 billion euros ($160 billion) to shore up jobs and businesses at risk from the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak, the finance minister said on Saturday.

Government sources told Reuters hundreds of billions in additional backing for the private sector would be raised, as Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said a ceiling on new government debt enshrined in the country’s constitution would be suspended due to the exceptional circumstances.

“A hundred and fifty billion is a large amount, but it gives us the flexibility that we now need,” Scholz said. “In addition we are laying the ground for various other institutions of our nation to take the steps necessary to stabilise our companies ... it’s important to send a clear and strong signal right at the beginning,” he told a news briefing. According to senior officials and a draft law seen

by Reuters, the package will include a supplementary government budget of 156 billion euros, 100 billion euros for an economic stability fund that can take direct equity stakes in companies, and 100 billion euros in credit to public-sector development bank KfW for loans to struggling businesses. On top of that, the stability fund will offer 400 billion euros in loan guarantees to secure corporate debt at risk of defaulting, taking the volume of the overall package to more than 750 billion euros. Under Germany’s so-called debt brake rule, Berlin is allowed to take on new debt of no more than 0.35pc of economic output, unless the country is hit by a natural disaster or other emergencies. Scholz said on Saturday the government would invoke such an exception, confirming a Reuters report on Thursday. “We will take out more debt than what is normally allowed under the constitution,” Scholz said, adding that austerity in previous years had prepared the ground for such a move and that a debt-repayment schedule would be part of the draft law.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to do “whatever it takes” to counter the epidemic’s economic impact, and her cabinet is set to back the package of fiscal measures on Monday. A government source had told Reuters on Friday that a 150 billion euro supplementary budget was underway.

Huawei Pakistan provides video conference system to NHS ministry

PHMA urGeS Govt to eNSure job Security for textile workerS

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

P

AKISTAN Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PHMA) Vice Chairman Shafi Butt has urged the government to immediately take supportive measures to keep the wheels of the industry moving and to secure the jobs of millions.

Chairing a meeting at the PHMA zonal office on Saturday, he asked the government to announce an instant relief package to facilitate textile workers during the shutdown period, saying that the industry is considering laying off workers following the cancellation of export orders.

"The industry is unable to pay them [workers] due to liquidity crunch amid non-payment of sales tax refunds," he maintained.

Butt informed that the industry has already started issuing layoff notices to employees.

“This trend will culminate into unemployment of hundreds of thousands of workers at a time when

'GOVT MUST IMMEDIATELY ANNOUNCE A RELIEF PACKAGE TO FACILITATE TEXTILE WORKERS DURING THE SHUTDOWN PERIOD' millions of youth are already unemployed. The government will have to announce immediate relief for the industry as exports shipments to Europe and the USA are being suspended owing to closure of international borders,” he stated.

The vice chairman said that PHMA is highly perturbed over the adverse impacts of the coronavirus outbreak; foreign buyers have started deferring their export orders, resulting in industrial closures and massive unemployment, which can be managed only through government support.

He said in order to save the economy from the

impacts of global slowdown, the government should ensure early disbursement of all outstanding sales tax refunds, significant cut in mark-up rate and continuation of energy supply on competitive rates as committed by the government.

“Other countries are combating the situation through massive injection of funds through outright grants, ensuring availability of cheap credit to the industry and deferment of all government dues and taxes.

“The apparel industry is already cash strapped due to the flawed sales tax system which has transferred billions of exporters to the Federal Board of Revenue. The tax department has partially processed claims till Nov 2019, while three months further have passed now,” he added.

Butt urged the government to ensure continuation of electricity and gas supply to the export sector at government committed rates on long-term basis and slash the interest rate to single digit with a view to achieve export target and fully exploit the extension in GSP Plus status to Pakistan.

BUSINESS DESK Huawei Pakistan has donated a $300,000 video conference system to the Ministry of National Health Services (MNHS) to help the country fight against COVID-19. The system can connect the World Health Organization’s Pakistan Office, the government departments and all the emergency control centers for COVID-19 across Pakistan. The technological structure of the system is a multi-scenario intelligent collaboration solution based on 4K video technologies and the system can be applied in several situations such as epidemic prevention and control command, remote consultation and remote monitoring, according to Huawei. Addressing the donation ceremony, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Zafar Mirza thanked Huawei for its support to Pakistan's efforts in preventing and controlling the spread of the disease. "This is a difficult time for the country, and we would like Huawei to be a partner with us, just as China and Pakistan are best partners," Mirza said, adding that he hopes Huawei can cooperate with the health ministry on telemedicine in the future. Huawei Pakistan CEO Meng Qiang expressed the company's willingness to support Pakistan in fighting against COVID-19, adding that Huawei's operations in Pakistan are continuing as usual due to the strict precautionary measures that the company has taken and Huawei will try its best to work with its clients in Pakistan to guarantee the network operation in this critical time. The offices of the WHO Pakistan, National Institute of Health and the health ministry have already been connected by the system, Huawei said, adding that six additional locations including all the emergency control centers for COVID-19 across Pakistan will also be connected.

IRSA allows elderly employees to work from home ISLAMABAD AHMAD AHMADANI

Indus River System Authority (IRSA) has taken certain precautionary and preventive measures against the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) with immediate effect till further orders.

IRSA officials said by taking certain measures under such critical situation, the authority has tried to save its employees from the adverse effects of the deadly virus.

Sources said that IRSA, through a recent office order, had informed the interior ministry regarding its measures against the spread of coronavirus. Following the IRSA measures, the interior ministry had issued an office memorandum in his regard, they added.

According to officials, the IRSA secretary had issued the said office order after obtaining the approval from the IRSA chairman.

As per the order, “All section heads have been directed to identify the essential staff for important tasks and ensure presence in office and employees from each section may be decreased on rotation basis. Similarly, the employees over 50 years of age are allowed to work from home but they should re-

main available on modern tools e-g. landline, cell phone, WhatsApp, Skype etc., while employees with illness (flu, fever and throat infection) or experiencing coronavirus-like symptoms are ordered to inform the office telephonically.

“Furthermore, employees not belonging to Rawalpindi/Islamabad are instructed that they

can stay at their native towns except those who have been identified as essential staff by the section heads.”

Earlier, the Ministry of Interior, in a circular dated 19th March, 2020, had decided to reduce the staff strength by 50pc on a fortnightly basis with effect from 20th March.

Pakistan can learn from Chinese expertise in e-commerce development ISLAMABAD APP

Pakistan can learn from the experience of China to develop its e-commerce as there is a pressing need to promote the use of digital payment service in the wake of the recent outbreak of Covid-19.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has recently issued a statement, listing a number of measures to reduce the need for visiting bank branches or the ATMs and to promote the use of Digital Payment Services such as internet banking and mobile phone banking.

Given the pivotal role of financial sector in providing services to the general public and particularly the businesses, the SBP instructed banks to take specific measures to provide their services seamlessly amid the pandemic, China Economic Net reported here. The novel coronavirus is challenging

human life globally and all countries are struggling to find out solutions. The SBP's move implicated Pakistan's resolve to encourage development of e-commerce.

Businesses in Pakistan first embraced ecommerce in 2001. Hundreds of retailers, ranging from clothing outlets to electronic equipment stores, are now using websites to sell goods to customers. Indeed, Pakistan's iron-clad brother China had witnessed a similar development of e-commerce in 2003 when the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) hit the country. Millions of people confined to their homes and that was a golden opportunity for online platforms to make sales.

Two e-commerce giants of China's, Alibaba Group and JD.com, grew in the battle against SARS the very year. “The full power of China's e-commerce boom may not have been felt until years later, but this was indeed

the beginning,” Duncan Clark wrote in Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built.

E-commerce site Alibaba, founded in 1999 by Jack Ma and a group of friends, was a relatively small enterprise years ago and now the largest internet company in China.

COVID-19 is not its first encounter with an epidemic. In fact, the story can be dated back to 2003 when it launched Taobao during SARS, and expanded its online business while its headquarters were quarantined.

On May 7 that year, one of Alibab's project leaders Song Jie was confirmed as the fourth SARS case in Southeast China's Zhejiang Province. She had come into contact with many people and the risk of contagion was huge. Panic spread quickly and Alibaba was at the brink of extinction.

Later, Jack announced that Alibaba would maintain business operations in spite of the SARS epidemic and quarantine meas-

ures that prevent staff from coming to work.

It was how online shopping platform Taobao Marketplace is founded in Jack Ma's apartment. It led him to become the richest man in China.

The rise of another Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com shared some similarities with Alibaba. Richard Liu, the founder and chairman of JD.com, leased a four-square-meter retail unit in Beijing's technology hub of Zhongguancun, China's Silicon Valley in 1998. The company had modest growth and by 2003 Richard had opened 12 stores across the country.

However, he was forced to rethink his business model as the SARS erupted in 2003, keeping many people at home.

Richard saw an opportunity amid the difficulty to harness the potential of the Internet to support his business and began selling products online.

What followed was his first retail website in 2004. JD.com was founded later that year. Then in 2005, he closed all his brickand-mortar stores and moved his business online, a move that proved successful.

In addition to e-commerce companies like Alibaba and JD.com's hard work, SARS was significant in turning hundreds of thousands of Chinese people into online shoppers. It has proved the effectiveness of digital mobile technology 17 years ago. Here comes the COVID-19 now, a common enemy for human beings. It is a huge challenge, yet an opportunity, too.

As per the SBP, they are working with stakeholders to continuously assess the situation and will take every possible measure to improve the safety of the public. And they expect all these measures would help to continue meeting routine financial service needs of bank customers.

C M YK

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Sunday, 22 March, 2020

without Places to Gather, Debut Novelists reimagine book Promotion

F

The New York Times

By Tammy Tarng

oR many first-time novelists, years of hard work (and often solitary time) culminate in seeing their book come into the world: going to festivals and bookstores to read sections aloud and connecting with readers face to face, inhabiting with others the worlds they built. But with social distancing guidelines discouraging gatherings of more than 10 people, publishing a debut has changed in ways that authors couldn’t have foreseen just a few weeks ago. We spoke to several debut novelists about their books, their plans to promote their work and their days during this unusual time.

Gabriel Bump, ‘everywhere You don’t Belong,’ feb. 4 describe your book in a sentence.

My book is a dark comedy about a young man, claude McKay love, coming of age on chicago’s South Side, trying to navigate universal teenager angst while dealing with societal pressures. how were you planning to spend your time promoting and talking about your book?

I spent most of February touring and giving interviews. I was supposed to go on my final leg this upcoming week. By last Wednesday, as the severity of this situation clarified, after a few events canceled, we decided to cancel everything. It seemed silly to put people at risk of contracting and spreading the disease for a reading. how are you spending it now?

Now, my class at University at Buffalo has moved online. I also teach writing classes at Just Buffalo literary center. They’ve wisely closed. Until further notice, I’m hunkered down with

my girlfriend, our dog and cat, video games, movies, writing projects and books. I’m editing my second novel. It’s about an underground society that forms because America and the world are crumbling. coming back to that work during these times is, well, surreal. is there anything else you want to add or that’s been on your mind in connection with this?

Publishing and promoting a book is a stressful, maddening, exhausting, anxiety-inducing and wonderful process.

This book has taken up almost all my head space the past few months. It was the most important thing to me. This crisis has brought me back to reality. I’m no longer afraid of bad reviews, empty readings or a lukewarm reception. I’m afraid for the world. I also feel a deeper appreciation for literature’s ability to transport us away from the present. emily nemens, ‘the cactus League,’ feb. 4 describe your book in a sentence.

“The cactus league” is a community novel that charts the path of Jason Goodyear, the los Angeles lions’ fantastic but flawed left fielder, as the lions make their way through spring training in Scottsdale, Ariz. how were you planning to spend your time promoting and talking about your book?

My publicist and I worked together to build out an ambitious schedule of events at independent bookstores, schools and festivals, with the understanding that those readings and conversations really do sell books.

I was fortunate to complete the first half of my tour in February — though I was in several covid-19 hot spots, including Seattle, just days before the outbreak was detected there, and those happy, carefree — and crowded —

gatherings now seem a bit ominous. I had a second leg charted — visiting spring training and the Tucson Book Festival, then speaking to several university writing programs, including my graduate alma mater, louisiana State University. I was supposed to be watching a Brewers spring training game right now! how are you spending it now?

I’m trying to book podcast and radio interviews as much as I can, and I’m being pretty emphatic on social media about supporting not just my novel but all debut writers and independent bookstores (book events are a major driver of sales for them, too).

I’m also spending a lot of time on triage at work — by day I run The Paris Review. Making sure my colleagues were safe and healthy and ready to go remote, and postponing our 400-person awards dinner and fund-raiser, also have kept me plenty busy.

is there anything else you want to add or that’s been on your mind in connection with this?

I’d love to plug the new website bookshop.org. You can order online, but the sales are fulfilled by indies, based on your geography. It just launched — in the nick of time. hilary Leichter, ‘temporary,’ march 3 describe your book in a sentence.

My debut novel, “Temporary,” is the story of a temporary worker who is assigned a series of surreal and improbable jobs on her quest for permanence — she works as a pirate, an assassin, a ghost and even a bank robber. how were you planning to spend your time promoting and talking about your book?

I am a former theater kid, and a wellknown ham, so more than anything I was looking forward to putting on a show. I think that when readers trek out to a book event, it’s such a great way of

saying “thank you” to do something a little bit different than a straightforward reading. For the Brooklyn launch, I had planned a performance of several sections of my novel, with a Greek chorus of readers, including the author Diane cook, and the writer and podcast host Dennis Norris II. coffee house Press, Emily Books and I had put together a tour of about 17 events in 12 different cities around the country.

I was devastated to see these events disappear. It took so much time and care to put a tour together. I have been saving airline miles and taking on extra work for years to make it possible. My family has been planning to come to New York for months, and after they canceled their flights (the right decision), I spent a good hour crying and watching “love Is Blind.” Writing a book can be incredibly lonely, and I was so looking forward to the chance to share it with the people I love and admire, in person. how are you spending it now?

Books Are Magic was set to host my book launch on Friday, March 13 (I know, I know). In the face of everything happening in the world, and after obsessively refreshing Twitter, it became clear that the events around my book were kaput.

And then! The writer and bookstore owner Emma Straub had me and my editor, Emily Gould, stop by the store yesterday to film a short Q. and A. for Instagram. They even let me sing a couple of songs on my ukulele.

And yesterday evening, my husband, along with the debut author Emma copley Eisenberg, hosted a surprise digital book launch over Zoom. There were so many friends from near and far, and my mom was even able to join the video! People were on the chat with their babies, their toddlers, their dogs. g

book review

Home With Your Kids? Writers Want to Help

S

The New York Times

By ConCepCión de León

chool closings are a drastic change for kids at this challenging time, and children’s authors — whose normal routines are also disrupted — are finding ways to reach their readers in different ways. Dozens of book festivals, tours and events have been canceled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and some writers are turning to social media to engage with their fans, offering readings of their books, art classes and other activities to keep them entertained. here’s what they’re doing.

Gene Luen YanG When Gene luen Yang’s tour for his new graphic novel, “Dragon hoops,” was canceled as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, “I felt disheartened and helpless,” he said. In lieu of an inperson tour, he held a Facebook live session to discuss the book. he’s also “touring as a cartoon” on his Instagram page, where he will take reader questions and respond in a comic strip. As a former teacher, Yang said, he has a “special place in my heart for all the parents who are now unexpectedly home schooling their kids,” and will be working with his publisher to develop resources to help them with this “monumental task.” amie Kaufman The science fiction and fantasy writer Amie Kaufman (The Illuminae Files series, “Aurora Rising”) has been throwing online launch parties for writers whose book-promotion plans have been upended. “Many of them have had long-dreamed-of events canceled, which is the right thing to do, but so very hard,” Kaufman said in an email. “There’s a fear that among so much bad news, their books will simply be lost.”

For the next few weeks (and perhaps even longer), on Monday nights, Kaufman is boosting the work of several authors, encouraging people to buy their new books and hosting virtual conversations using the hashtag #kidlitgoesviral.

Dozens of writers have signed up to participate, with teachers, librarians, parents and readers joining

to ask questions. “So many independent bookstores are under pressure,” Kaufman said, “and it’s scary to think they might not be there on the other side of this experience.”

Grace Lin Grace lin, an illustrator and author of middlegrade novels and picture books, is posting drawing tutorials and readings from her books on her YouTube channel. She’s taught viewers how to draw a chinese dragon and a dog starting from the numeral 5, and has read from “Mulan: Before the Sword,” an original prequel to the upcoming liveaction film, and “ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same,” about twin sisters trying to distinguish themselves from each other. lin said she began the reading series in part to fight the “anti-Asian rhetoric” that has come up amid coronavirus fears. “I’ve felt the need to show kids positive representations of Asian-Americans and Asian culture,” she said. “I hope Asian kids see me and feel a little less alone, and non-Asian kids see me and a part of their brain registers that people who look like me are not the enemy.”

lin has also started a podcast, Kids Ask Authors, which was in the works before the pandemic struck, in which children’s authors answer questions from readers about their books and creative process. mo WiLLems The author and illustrator Mo Willems is inviting kids to draw with him every day for “lunch Doodles.” In the first couple of sessions, which are hosted on YouTube and started on Monday, he walked viewers through his process, gave them a tour of his studio, answered questions and drew whimsical creatures or created simple animations for them to try at home. “I’m really looking forward to it,” he said in one video, “because there’s nothing more fun than doodling with a friend.” mac Barnett Mac Barnett, who’s written dozens of books, including the Jack Book and Mac B. Kid Spy series, is reading a book every afternoon on Instagram live. The writer, who often collaborates with the illustrator Jon Klassen, has read “Extra

Yarn,” about a girl who changes her community with a magical box of never-ending yarn, and “Billy Twitters and his Blue Whale Problem,” about a boy who gets a blue whale as a pet. oLiver Jeffers “We are all at home, but none of us are alone,” oliver Jeffers recently wrote on his website. “let’s be bored together.”

Jeffers (“The Day the crayons Quit,” “how to catch a Star,” “The Fate of Fausto,”) is reading on Instagram live on weekday afternoons and making all the recordings available on his site. vashti harrison Vashti harrison will share drawing tutorials and worksheets on Instagram inspired by her little leaders, little Dreamers and little legends books, which highlight influential black men and women in United States history, including Alvin Ailey and Michelle obama. She created a highlights reel on her page called “Quarantine Fun!” and plans to share sessions on themes such as “how to draw your own little leader.”

Jarrett J. KrosoczKa Jarrett J. Krosoczka, best known for his lunch lady series of graphic novels, is hosting drawing sessions on his YouTube channel every day. he’s been teaching basic illustration techniques, like how to draw a face and its expressions, but also often shares anecdotes about growing up as a kid who loved to draw.

Peter h. reYnoLds The writer and illustrator, whose tour for his most recent picture book, “Be You,” was canceled, is reading aloud from his work on Facebook live every day. So far, he’s read “The Word collector,” “The Dot” and “Ish,” his sequel to “The Dot.” carson eLLis The illustrator carson Ellis (“home,” “Du Iz Tak?”) is running a Quarantine Art club for her followers. She posts prompts — such as “is a cat,” “wearing glasses” and “holding a golden scepter” — and encourages readers to create their own art in response. She shares some of the results using the hashtag #QuarantineArtclub, and features some on her website, too. g

Sunday, 22 March, 2020

14 SPORTS

Us athletiCs Federation Calls For olyMpiC postponeMent

WASHINGTON

U

AGENCIES

NITED States athletics' governing body joined calls for the Tokyo Olympics to be postponed on Saturday, urging US Olympic chiefs to push for the Games to be delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter to the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), USA Track and Field chief Max Siegel said forging ahead with Olympic preparations "would not be in the best interest of our athletes."

The USATF call for a postponement echoed a similar request by USA Swimming on Friday after the USOPC said it was too soon to postpone the July 24-August 9 Games.

Siegel urged the USOPC to support a postponement, citing the health and safety of athletes as well as disruption to training and competition schedules caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

"Our athletes are under tremendous

pressure stress and anxiety, and their mental health and wellness is among our highest priorities," Siegel said.

"The right and responsible thing to do is to prioritize everyone's health and safety and appropriately recognize the toll this difficult situation has, and continues to take, on our athletes and their Olympic Games preparations.

"For those reasons, USATF is respectfully requesting that the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) advocate to the IOC for the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo."

Siegel acknowledged that there "were no perfect answers" to what was a "very complex and difficult decision."

"But this position at least provides our athletes with the comfort of knowing that they will have adequate time to properly prepare themselves physically, mentally and emotionally to be able to participate in a safe and successful Olympic Games, and that they can shift their focus toward taking care of themselves and their families," he said.

SPEAK UP FOR ATHLETES "We urge the USOPC, as a leader within the Olympic movement, to use its voice and speak up for the athletes."

On Friday, USOPC chairwoman Susanne Lyons said there was no need for the IOC to make an immediate decision on a possible postponement of the Tokyo games, insisting that organisers had time on their side.

"I think we would concur with the IOC to say that we need more expert advice and information than we have today to make a decision," Lyons said.

"And we don't have to make a decision. Our games are not next week, or two weeks from now. They're four months from now.

"So we are affording the IOC the opportunity to gather that information and expert advice. At this point in time, we do not feel that it's necessary for us to insist that they make a decision."

However, the USOPC position met with immediate resistance, with USA Swimming issuing an open letter calling for Olympic chiefs to seek a postponement. "We urge the USOPC, as a leader within the Olympic Movement, to use its

voice and speak up for the athletes," USA Swimming chief executive Tim Hinchey wrote.

"The right and responsible thing to do is to prioritize everyone's health and safety and appropriately recognize the toll this global pandemic is taking on athletic preparations," he added.

The calls for an Olympic postponement by US federations mirror requests in other countries. France's swim federation has also called for a delay, along with British track and field's governing body.

Retired US track and field star Ashton Eaton, a double Olympic decathlon champion, said on Twitter that delaying Tokyo for a year was the only sensible option.

"Tokyo 2021. Nothing else makes sense," Eaton wrote. "Anything else is socially irresponsible.

"How can the IOC and Japanese NOC in good conscience hold one of the world's largest and most important gatherings and risk facilitating the acceleration of global contagion and having the worst event in history?

"Most evidence ... showed Tokyo2020 is/was set to be one of the best Olympics in history," he added.

FrenCh swiM Federation joins Us CoUnterpart in olyMpiCs delay Call France's swimming federation on Saturday joined its US counterpart in calling for the Tokyo Olympics to be postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, adding to pressure on the IOC. "The current context does not allow the 2020 Olympic Games to be organised properly," the federation said after a videoconference of its executive committee.

The federation called for the International Olympic Committee to "study the possibility of a postponement". It said measures restricting the movement of people in many countries, including

France, "mean that sporting fairness cannot be guaranteed in terms of preparation for this competition". The call followed that of USA Swimming which on Friday urged the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee to back a postponement. "We urge the USOPC, as a leader within the Olympic Movement, to use its voice and speak up for the athletes," USA Swimming CEO Tim Hinchey said in a letter. IOC President Thomas Bach insisted this week it was "premature" to consider postponing the Tokyo Games, which are scheduled to start on July 24.

Celtics' Smart has coronavirus, warns youth to take it seriously BOSTON AGENCIES

Boston Celtics star Marcus Smart said he has the new coronavirus and urged young people to take the threat seriously and practice social distancing Smart tested positive Thursday but said he was not showing any of the symptoms.

"I feel great. I feel fine. I feel like I can go play a game right now," the 26-year-old from Texas told CNN Friday.

But he had a warning for young Americans like those shown partying on Florida beaches undeterred by the threat of COVID-19.

"I advise my generation, I am 26, to take it seriously," Smart said. "Be alert.

Take precautions. By protecting yourself, you protect others.

"That's the key. People are not showing symptoms so it is hard for anyone to

know they have the virus. But being around a group of people, friends, family and not isolating themselves, you are a carrier. You can spread the virus around without knowing." On Twitter he also stressed that the younger generation must self-distance. "This is not a joke. Not doing so is selfish. Together we can beat this, but we must beat it together by being apart for a short while. Much love!!," he tweeted.

At least 14 NBA team members have so far tested positive for COVID-19, including Brooklyn Nets Kevin Durant and Utah Jazz's Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell.

On Wednesday, commissioner Adam Silver said NBA players should be considered "super spreaders" of the disease.

Silver's comments came amid criticism that wealthy athletes were getting tested for the virus ahead of critically ill patients in US hospitals.

Smart said he was tested on Saturday and got the results five days later.

"I found out yesterday evening," he said. "I was like, Oh wow! It makes you alert to what is going on."

Smart told CNN he was not worried about his symptoms getting worse.

"I talked to my doctors and they just

told me that I have not experienced symptoms yet so I should be on the last curve of the ball. "I am just ready to get this behind and move on." In 53 games in 2019-20, Smart is averaging 4.8 assists and 3.8 rebounds per contest.

Smart is a first-round pick of the Celtics in the 2014 NBA draft.

world champion hamilton self-isolating as precaution LONDON AGENCIES

Six-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton says he is self-isolating but will not get tested for coronavirus as others need attention more than him. The 35-year-old Briton said he decided to self-isolate because he had been at the same function in London that actor Idris Elba and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau attended earlier this month. Elba and Gregoire-Trudeau subsequently both tested positive for COVID-19. "I want to let you know that I am doing well," Hamilton said in a statement. "There has been speculation about my health, after I was at an event where two people later tested positive for coronavirus.

"I have zero symptoms and it has now been 17 days since I saw Sophie and Idris. I have been in touch with Idris and happy to hear he is OK. "I did speak to my doctor and double checked if I needed to take a test but the truth is, there is a limited amount of tests available and there are people who need it more than I do, especially when I wasn't showing any symptoms at all."

Hamilton has been in isolation since last Friday.

The start of the Formula One season has been wiped away by the pandemic with races in Australia, Bahrain, Vietnam, China, Netherlands and Spain shelved and the iconic Riviera showpiece in Monaco cancelled. A season which should have started in Melbourne on March 14 will now not start until Azerbaijan on June 7 at the earliest.

Formula One's British-based teams are also hoping to contribute away from the track.

Man Utd, Man City unite to help Manchester foodbanks MANCHESTER AGENCIES

Manchester United and Manchester City have joined forces to donate a combined ÂŁ100,000 ($117,000) to help local foodbanks affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Collections are normally made at home games for both Manchester giants by fans' groups supporting foodbanks, but football in England is suspended until at least April 30 due to restrictions on mass gatherings due to coronavirus. "We are proud of the role our supporters play in helping local food banks and recognise the increased strain likely to be placed on these charities by the impact of coronavirus," the clubs said in a joint statement. "At a time of challenge for our community, we are pleased to come together with our fans to help vulnerable members of society in a City United." The donation will support the Trussell Trust's 19 foodbank centres in the Greater Manchester area. United have been taken steps to try to alleviate the burden on their staff and supporters during the crisis. The Red Devils have vowed to pay 3,000 casual staff even for the remainder the season even if matches at Old Trafford are forced behind closed doors or cancelled.

WADA issues dope testing guidelines amid coronavirus pandemic MONTREAL AGENCIES

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) issued new guidelines on Friday to facilitate continued testing amid the constraints of the coronavirus pandemic.

Noting that the spread of COVID-19 had evolved into "an even greater health and societal emergency" since its March 6 communique, WADA urged Anti-Doping Organizations (ADOs) to act in accordance with restrictions placed by local health authorities "to ensure proper protection of athletes and doping control personnel, while protecting the integrity of doping control programs, particularly in the leadup to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games."

WADA's latest guidelines advise anti-doping organizations to make sure that sample col-

lectors are free from any symptoms of illness.

Collectors should also ask athletes if they have any symptoms or if they or anyone at the collection site are in the groups thought to be at heightened risk from COVID-19. If test collection personnel are found to have contracted the virus, athletes they tested should be informed and vice versa, WADA said. Protective wear such as masks should be used and work surfaces disinfected, and if local conditions limit what testing can occur then ADOs should "consider focusing their testing program on targeted athletes from high risk sports and disciplines," WADA said.

In locations where testing programs can't continue, WADA said, it and other anti-doping organizations and sports federations will work together "once the situation begins to return to normal" to identify gaps in testing "particularly as it relates to the Tokyo Olympic and Para-

lympic Games." WADA said anti-doping organizations should continue to obtain information on whereabouts of athletes normally gathered to facilitate out-of-competition testing.

Athletes are still responsible for obtaining therapeutic use exemptions and "should be reminded that they can still be tested at any place, any time," WADA said. With some WADA accredited laboratories already closed and others likely to follow suit, WADA said testing organizations should contact the Montreal-based organization for information on what labs might be able to receive samples.

"While there are no plans to change existing requirements under the World Anti-Doping Program, WADA fully acknowledges the complexities of this unprecedented situation and will ensure its compliance monitoring program provides a level of flexibility and understanding based on the circumstances," WADA said.

Sunday, 22 March, 2020

Ireland-Bangladesh crIcket serIes postponed due to coronavIrus

SPORTS 15

DhaKa

I

Agencies

reland's seven-match series against Bangladesh became on Saturday the latest casualty to be inflicted on the cricket calendar by the coronavirus pandemic. The three one-day internationals in Belfast and four Twenty20 matches in England, scheduled to take place in May, have been postponed in line with British and Irish government advice against the staging of sporting events with mass gatherings and travel restrictions.

"We have a responsibility to protect the wellbeing of players, coaches, fans and the wider community, and will not hesitate to take a safety-first approach to our operations over coming months," said Warren Deutrom, Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland.

"We would like to thank the Bangladesh Cricket Board for their helpful cooperation in reaching this decision, and we shall work with them at establishing new dates for the series when we are all in a position to plan for the future with greater certainty."

The United Kingdom is entering a second weekend of sporting shutdown that is expected to last for at least a couple of months.

No professional cricket will be played in England and Wales before May 28 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pubs, restaurants and gyms across the UK were closed on Friday, while schools will remain open only for the children of key workers to try and halt the spread of the virus.

scotland's Majid haq tests positive for coronavirus GLasGow Agencies

Focus on your own cricket: PCB CEO Wasim Khan pulls up Mohammad Hafeez Lahore Agencies

In a strongly worded reprimand to Mohammad Hafeez, the PCB chief executive officer Wasim Khan said the batsman should be "focusing on his own cricket" instead of giving opinions on "right and wrong" after Hafeez questioned the return of Sharjeel Khan to competitive cricket.

Sharjeel had received a five-year ban from the PCB for the role he played in the PSL corruption scandal from 2017. The board suspended his sentence following an "unconditional apology" in August 2019, paving way for a sooner-than-expected comeback. Even so, it seemed unlikely that he

would play in this year's PSL until the Karachi Kings bought him at the auction and deployed him as their opening batsman.

Sharjeel could only make 199 runs from 10 matches, which raised questions about whether he was physically fit enough to play at the top level.

Hafeez was replying to one such question on Twitter when he said, "Shouldn't we set Standards of Dignity & Pride Higher than any other "Extra Talent" to represent Pakistan." The PCB CEO didn't take kindly to that. "Current players should not be going up on social media to criticise other players or talk about what policies the cricket board should or shouldn't have," Wasim said through a video link from Lahore. "They can have their opinions about

various things about world cricket and cricket in general but not about the rights and wrongs of players and the boards and they should leave that to cricket board to answer.

"I will be personally speaking to Mohammad Hafeez about that and I don't think it's his place to be doing it. No other player in the world does that so why should our Pakistani players do that? I don't think they have any space to do that and I don't think they should be doing that. That's my personal view.

Coming from an English environment, I never saw an English player tweet about policies, procedures, talking about other players' right or wrong. My view is, he should focus on his own game, focus on the cricketing opinion he can give but don't give personal opinion about other players."

This is not the first time Hafeez has questioned a player on his return from a ban. In December 2015, he and current Test captain Azhar Ali stayed away from a training camp ahead of a tour of New Zealand because Mohammad Amir, who was returning from a spot-fixing ban, was picked to be a part of it. Both of them eventually joined training after the PCB intervened and have since played several matches alongside Amir. Sharjeel was a promising talent for Pakistan before his ban. He played 25 ODIs, 15 T20Is and one Test and in that time cultivated a reputation for being a hard-hitting batsman. PSL 2020 was his first taste of action in over two years.

The 30-year-old had to miss the whole of the Pakistan domestic season since he was still undergoing the rehabilitation part of his sentence.

"He has done his time, whatever was set," Wasim said. "He has carried out that ban. He is back and was picked up by a franchise and he is available to play again. In terms of him getting selected [for Pakistan] going forward, that is up to the selectors. There is a long way for Sharjeel Khan to go before he is considered to play for Pakistan again.

ON OR OFF?

Who's saying what over status of 2020 Tokyo Olympics ToKYo Agencies

As the deadly coronavirus spreads around the globe, doubts grow over whether the 2020 Olympic Games, set for Tokyo from July 24 to August 9, will go ahead.

AFP Sport looks at who's saying what as the debate becomes even more heated: "Of course we are considering different scenarios, but we are contrary to many other sports organizations or professional leagues in that we are fourand-a-half months away from the Games."

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach on Friday.

"No solution will be ideal in this situation, and this is why we are counting on the responsibility and solidarity of the athletes." IOC spokesman Wednesday "Anything is possible at the moment."

World athletics chief Sebastian Coe when asked whether the Games could be postponed to September or October.

"Respectfully requested...that the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee advocate for the postponement of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 by one year to 2021." USA Swimming chief executive Tim Hinchey "It's (a postponement) not only best from a performance statement for the athletes, but also for what these athletes

are going through right now in terms of their mental health."

Bob Bowman, the coach who guided swimming great Michael Phelps to 28 Olympic medals -- 23 of them gold. "The IOC wants us to keep risking our health, our family's health and public health to train every day? You are putting us in danger right now, today, not in 4 months."

Greece's Olympic pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi.

"I think the IOC insisting this will move ahead, with such conviction, is insensitive and irresponsible given the state of humanity."

Hayley Wickenheiser, a Canadian IOC member and a four-time Olympic

CMYK

ice hockey gold medallist.

"We don't have to make a decision.

Our games are not next week, or two weeks from now. They're four months from now. So we are affording the IOC the opportunity to gather information and expert advice."

United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) chairwoman Susanne Lyons.

"Starting to feel a little worried about how the Olympic Games are being treated in respect to the athletes.

We keep being told the Olympic Games are happening. Starting to realize it's more important to have the games go on than the athletes be prepared or mentally healthy."

US world champion fencer Race Imboden on Twitter.

"It should be postponed under the current situation where athletes are not well prepared."

Japanese Olympic Committee executive board member Kaori Yamaguchi, a former Olympic judoka.

Former Scotland offspinner Majid Haq has announced on Twitter that he is recovering after testing positive for COVID-19. The 37-year-old posted the news on Friday morning, saying he was being treated at Royal Alexandra Hospital in the Paisley area of Glasgow. "Looking forward to potentially getting back home today after testing positive with Coronavirus," Haq tweeted. "Staff at the RAH in Paisley have been good to me & thank you to everyone who has sent me messages of support. Insha Allah the Panther will be back to full health soon. #covid19UK" According to the UK government's dedicated NHS web site for Coronavirus information, there were 266 confirmed cases of the virus in Scotland as of 9.00 am on March 19, part of 3,269 confirmed cases across the whole of the United Kingdom. Haq, who logged 54 ODIs and 21 T20Is for Scotland, last played for his country at the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. He was Scotland's alltime leading wicket-taker in ODI cricket with 60 wickets until being passed in 2019 by fast bowler Safyaan Sharif.

However, Haq has still been active in domestic cricket in Scotland, most recently captaining Royal High Corstorphine CC in the Cricket Scotland League Eastern Premiership for the 2019 summer. Both Cricket Scotland and the ECB announced this week that recreational cricket would be suspended indefinitely in light of the Coronavirus outbreak. Many cricketers from around the world have been under self-isolation since the Coronavirus was declared a global pandemic.

Warner opts out of the hundred citing 'family and personal reasons' CaNBerra Agencies

David Warner has withdrawn his name from the inaugural edition of the Hundred citing "family and personal reasons", ESPNcricinfo understands. The tournament is also set to clash in part with Australia's three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe, which is included in the ODI League that will serve as a qualification pathway to the 2023 ODI World Cup in India.

Australia were originally scheduled to host Zimbabwe in June, but Cricket Australia's revised dates of early August will overlap with the Hundred, which is supposed to run from July 17 to August 15 - although there remains a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the English season due to the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) pandemic. James Erskine, Warner's manager, confirmed on Friday that the opener's decision to pull out had nothing to do with the outbreak.

Warner had been due to be a part of the Southamptonbased Southern Brave side, which had picked him at the maximum fee of ÂŁ125,000 during the draft last October.

Warner's fellow Australia international Marcus Stoinis is understood to have been lined up as a replacement.

Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith and Mitchell Starc are some of the other Australians who signed up for the Hundred, while Andrew McDonald was roped in as the coach of Birmingham Phoenix.

As reported by ESPNcricinfo, the ECB could prioritise the Hundred and the T20 Blast to salvage something from the 2020 season, which is set to be curtailed by the coronavirus threat. Several rounds of talks between counties, players and broadcasters have resulted in a raft of recommendations that will be discussed by the ECB board on Friday. If those discussions proceed without complication, the ECB will make an announcement within the

Sunday, 22 March, 2020

NEWS

CoronavIrus stay-at-home dIreCtIves multIply In major us states

n

EW Jersey’s governor was expected on Saturday to follow four other states – California, New York, Illinois and Connecticut – demanding that millions of Americans close up shop and stay home to slow the spread of coronavirus infections.

The sweeping state-by-state public health restrictions, unprecedented in breadth and scope, added to the distance being experienced among ordinary Americans.

“I know people want to hear it’s only going to be a matter of weeks and then everything’s going to be fine,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference on Saturday.

“I don’t believe it’s going to be a matter of weeks. I believe it is going to be a matter of months.”

Meanwhile, the global pandemic seemed to close in on the highest levels of power in the nation’s capital.

An aide to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, leading the White House task force formed to combat the outbreak, tested positive for the virus, but neither President Donald Trump nor Pence have had close contact with the individual, Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, said in a statement late on Friday.

Pence’s office was notified of the positive test on Friday evening, and officials were seeking to determine who the staffer might have exposed, Miller said.

The aide was not publicly identified, and the vice president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for further details of the diagnosis or

whether Pence would be tested.

“He’s recovering and has very, very mild symptoms,” Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short told CNN on Saturday.

The White House said last week that Pence did not require testing after dining with a Brazilian delegation, at least one member of which later tested positive for the respiratory illness.

Trump has tested negative for the virus, his doctor said last week.

Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives tested positive on Wednesday, becoming the first members of Congress known to have contracted the disease, which has killed 266 people in the United States.

The total number of known U.S. coronavirus cases has risen exponentially in recent days, climbing past 19,000 in a surge that health officials attributed in large part to an increase in diagnostic testing. More than 270 Americans have died. Cuomo said New York state was sending 1 million N95 respirator masks to New York City on Saturday. He said the state has identified 6,000 ventilators for purchase, which he described as a major step, but added that it needs 30,000.

“We are literally scouring the globe for medical supplies,” the governor said. New York state has recorded 10,356 cases, he said, 6,211 of them in New York City.

SOCIAL-DISTANCING GOES STATEWIDE: Expanding on socialdistancing measures increasingly adopted at the local level, California Governor Gavin Newsom instituted the first statewide directive requiring residents to remain indoors except for trips

to grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations and other “essential businesses.”

Newsom’s order, announced late on Thursday, made allowances for the state’s 40 million people to venture outside for exercise so long as they kept their distance from others.

On Friday, his counterparts in New York state, Illinois and Connecticut followed suit, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said he planned to issue similar directives on Saturday.

The five states where governors have banned or will soon ban non-essential businesses and press residents to stay inside are home to 84 million people combined, about a quarter of the entire U.S. population and account for nearly a third of the nation’s economy.

The state directives were for the most part issued without strict enforcement mechanisms to back them up.

“What we want is for people to be in compliance and we’re going to do everything that we can to educate them,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at a briefing on Saturday. Police of-

ficers would “admonish” those found to be on non-essential outings to go home, she said.

“That’s what we hope is the end of any kind of contact that anyone might have with the police department,” Lightfoot said.

Cuomo said there will be a civil fine and mandatory closure for any business that is not in compliance.

Even before the flurry of statewide stay-at-home orders, the pandemic had virtually paralyzed parts of the U.S. economy and upended lifestyles over the past week, as school districts and colleges canceled classes and many companies were shuttered, either voluntarily or by local government mandates.

Washington state, which documented the first known U.S. coronavirus case in January and now accounts for the greatest number of deaths – 83 as of Friday – has since March 16 closed bars, restaurants, recreation venues and entertainment facilities, while banning all gatherings of more than 50 people. AGENCIES

Italy coronavirus deaths surge by 793 in a day ROME: The death toll from an outbreak of coronavirus in Italy has leapt by 793 to 4,825, officials said on Saturday, an increase of 19.6% — by far the largest daily rise in absolute terms since the contagion emerged a month ago. On Thursday, Italy overtook China as the country to register most deaths from the highly contagious virus. The total number of cases in Italy rose to 53,578 from a previous 47,021, an increase of 13.9%, the Civil Protection Agency said. The hardest-hit northern region of Lombardy remains in a critical situation, with 3,095 deaths and 25,515 cases. Of those originally infected nationwide, 6,072 had fully recovered on Saturday compared to 5,129 the day before. There were 2,857 people in intensive care against a previous 2,655. AGENCIES

Coronavirus: Woman infects nine people at wedding

KARACHI INP

At least nine members of a family infected with novel coronavirus after they attended a marriage ceremony in Karachi. According to the details, the nine-member family attended a marriage ceremony, where a woman infected with COVID-19 was also in attendance. The woman had arrived from Saudi Arabia and was diagnosed with the deadly virus. The coronavirus patient met with the family in the marriage ceremony, infecting all the people with the virus. After attending the function, symptoms of the coronavirus started appearing in the people. They were tested for coronavirus which came back positive. The family was shifted to the hospital for treatment. The authorities said that other members of the family have been isolated in the home, adding that they were searching for all the people who had attended the marriage ceremony as they could be potential carriers of the virus. The federal and provincial have made repeated calls for social distancing and have also imposed partial lockdowns in respective territories in a bid to stop coronavirus. PM’s aide on health Zafar Mirza said: “I am very hopeful, If we practice social distancing, we will be able to control the pandemic.

Opp demands complete lockdown to avert 'tragedy' SHEHBAZ SHARIF SAYS LOCKDOWN NEED OF HOUR TO AVERT TRAGEDY LAHORE STAFF REPORT

As coronavirus cases continue to increase on Saturday, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have separately urged the federal government to impose to complete lockdown in the country to contain the deadly coronavirus.

The number of coronavirus cases has crossed 700 across the country, with Sindh, a province already under partial lockdown, accounting for 50 per cent of the reported cases.

In a statement before his return to Pakistan, National Assembly Opposition Leader and PMLN chief Shehbaz Sharif demanded a nationwide lockdown, saying the government should immediately take steps to avert a “terrible human tragedy”.

He also urged the government to ensure the provision of protective gear and other essential supplies to doctors and other medical staff

BILAWAL SAYS NEED FULL FORCE OF FEDERAL GOVT TO FACILITATE LOCKDOWN, INCREASE TESTS AND ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY PEOPLE

across the country. He further said that the government should take notice of incidents like lack of testing kits, doctors contracting the virus in KP and large gathering is Lahore and other parts of the country.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that Pakistan must move towards a lockdown as soon as possible. Taking to Twitter, the PPP chief said, “Pakistan must move towards a #lockdown.

Every hour, every day that we delay is going to make dealing with the pandemic more difficult.

We’re already late, should’ve done it earlier, need decisive action ASAP to mitigate this crisis now.”

“No province can handle this alone. We need the full force of the federal government to facilitate a lockdown, increase tests and assistance for those in need. While we hope for the best we must prepare for the worst,” he said.

“At this rate, our health system will be overwhelmed. We must learn from the experience of other countries. It’s a question of when not if.

Stay at home now until the government makes

up its mind. Stay at home to protect yourselves & others,” he added.

Two days ago, after the Sindh government had imposed a partial lockdown in the province, Bilawal had urged the federal government to lock down the entire country in a bid to contain the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

A day later, Prime Minister Imran Khan ruled out the lockdown had expressed the hope that Pakistan’s “hot and dry” weather will help to mitigate the coronavirus outbreak, urging citizens to exercise social distancing and self-discipline.

The prime minister, while speaking to a small group of journalists, had ruled out a complete lockdown in the country as a measure to contain the outbreak, adding that Centre “might consider a nationwide lockdown if things get out of hand”.

“It is very important that those who show symptoms of coronavirus must go into self-quarantine,” he had said, adding that people should avoid social gatherings for the next two months.

South Asian govts impose coronavirus curfews, border controls Pakistan suspended on Saturday all international flights for two weeks to limit the spread of coronavirus, as governments across densely populated South Asia ramped up their efforts to contain the virus.

Pakistan reported its third coronavirus death Friday with confirmed cases rising to 534. “(The) government of Pakistan has decided to suspend operation of all international passenger, chartered and private flights to Pakistan, effective from March 21 till April 4,” the civil aviation authority said in a statement.

Authorities in Bangladesh tightened border controls, while Sri Lankan police arrested more than two dozen people for violating a nationwide curfew.

The region, home to 1.9 billion people, appears to have been less badly affected than other parts of the world, but the rate of new infections in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka has accelerated.

As a whole, the region has registered

869 coronavirus cases and seven deaths.

A senior Indian health ministry official in New Delhi said India had tested some 15,00 people in about 70 state-run labs, one of the lowest testing rates in the world.

Bracing for the inevitable, India is increasing the number of tests being offered.

“At this point we really don’t know what is the extent of the spread,” the health ministry official said, on condition of anonymity.

Officials are concerned that countries in the region will prove particularly susceptible to the virus, given poor health facilities and infrastructure in many areas.

Indian Railways, which carries more than 30 million passengers every day, said some people who had tested positive for coronavirus had traveled by train — forcing officials to track down fellow passengers.

R D Bajpai, a spokesman for India’s national railway system, urged people not to travel. In the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, inmates at the largest jail launched

a violent protest against authorities for banning visitors due to the virus.

“An attempt was made by inmates to set fire to the jail after the convicts fought with

the staff but the situation is under control,” said an official at the Dum Dum prison, adding that police fired tear gas to quell the unrest.

In neighboring Bangladesh, jail authorities limited the number of visitors and banned the arrival of all flights from midnight except from China, Hong Kong and Thailand, after 20 people tested positive, a senior civil aviation official said.

At Dhaka airport, authorities started marking the hands of passengers who had been instructed to follow home quarantine.

In Sri Lanka, which has reported 72 confirmed cases, police arrested 30 people from various parts of the country for violating curfew, a police spokesman said, adding that the curfew has been imposed till Monday morning.

Indians in urban centres were scrambling to buy essential commodities, ahead of a self-imposed day-long curfew on Sunday promoted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to practice social isolation. India, the world’s second most-populous country, also plans to halt all incoming international flights to help stem the number of cases, which passed 271 on Saturday. AGENCIES

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 66-C, 1st Floor, 21st Commercial Street, Phase-II (Extension), DHA Karachi and printed at Ibn-e-Hassan Printing Press, Hockey Stadium, Karachi. Ph: 021-35381208-9. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk