Analysis of Pakistan Response Amid Covid-19 and Way Forward Critical Appraisal to nap and PPRO for Covid-19 Pakistan

Abstract

COVID-19 has proved to be a battle of nerves for the countries. Never have the world thought that it will be dealing with an unconventional enemy like coronavirus that too without any preparedness in place as par the requirement. It is not that the world has never been exposed to any such outbreaks before. According to the WHO it is the sixth Public Health Emergency of International Concern PHEIC. Still lack of preparation means a failure on our part. Countries tend to cope up with the situation on the basis of the available resources and this had a great impact on the type and level of response generation by each country. Developed countries had a more comprehensive and resource modernized response as compared to the developing or under developed. But one thing that is common in relation to this Pandemic specially is that the level of non-preparedness was the same whether it be the developed nation or a resource limited under developed. The concept of dealing with an infectious disease outbreak was considered to be a very rare phenomena, hence no preparation was already in place to fight a pandemic. Secondly, this pandemic has hit both the developed and under developed, the rich and poor equally. Somewhat similar was the case with Pakistan. The way Pakistan responded in the wake of COVID-19 shows two things; lack of prior Preparedness and Infectious Disease Control and Response plan and fragile healthcare system. The already crippled economy of Pakistan had to fight against a pandemic with its meagre resources. The challenge seems to be the toughest. But it still managed to carry out with a decent response. This study is also focused on the in-depth analysis of the response generated by Pakistan against COVID-19 with a special emphasis given to what were the challenges and hurdles faced in response generation. The research method used is Qualitative. The study is based on four tier research and is ix divided into two major segments. The first segment deals with the Response analysis done via making use of the Qualitative Content Analysis method. Whereas, the second segment deals with the critical evaluation of the National Action Plan NAP for COVID-19 Pakistan in order to find out the limitations in the plan and lay down recommendations for improvement. The results of the Analysis shows that the Response by Pakistan in the wake of COVID-19 was a decent one. With the already crippled economy Pakistan’s measures adapted for the containment of the virus are far reaching and all encompassing. Many good strategies were adapted like smart lockdown. But on the other hand the delayed response in the beginning and absence of a preparedness and response plan for infectious disease outbreak along with the lack of co-ordination among the centre and province are some of the challenges that