COVID-19 epidemic spread and the impact on public health & safety policy - An analysis of the adoption of preventive measures and effective management evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

Many severe pneumonia cases were reported at the end of December 2019 in Wuhan city, Hubei province of China The Center for Disease Control China (CDC) collected the samples, diagnosed the disease and named it as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) Later on, it was named as COVID-19 by World Health Organization (WHO) After China, it has rapidly spread all over the world, affecting almost 216 countries including Italy, Germany, Russia, Brazil, USA, UK, Spain, Indonesia, India, Turkey, and France According to an estimation of overall COVID-19 cases, 5 8 million (5,819,962) people got infected while 0 36 million (362,786) lost their lives across the world It is spreading in Pakistan as well, and being a developing country, many challenges are being faced, such as limited resources, lack of medical facilities, low poverty rate, uneducated people, poor hygienic conditions or habits and unawareness Pakistan has a very low level of resources & fighting conditions;fortunately, Pakistan has 92% of recovery rate of the COVID-19 cases as compared to other developing countries The Central & Local governments in Pakistan have implemented many preventive and safety measures to completely eradicate the corona transmission through the effective utilization of organized task force, quick mitigation response policy, and strengthening the abilities to fight against COVID-19 This study highlights the current situation in the country with a focus on the province of Punjab, to notice the total number of COVID-19 cases & analyse the effectiveness of preventive measures taken as a quick response by the provincial governance for public health & safety Analysing the overall situation in country, a total of 286,674 confirmed cases, including 16,475 active, 6139 deaths, and 264,060 recoveries (92%), were reported While, in the province of Punjab, 94,805 cases were reported including 2,179 deaths and 86,389 (91%) recoveries The study reveals that strict compliance and enforcement of government policies through effective leadership, and unity at public level led to better control the pandemic spread The impact of social distancing and protective measures in confronting the epidemic COVID-19 in Pakistan could also be used as a tool for combating coronavirus in other developing countries having equal working performance and similar financial limitations