Finding Facemask Needs Hard labour
Pak Chronicle Report
Rawalpindi
The hoarders of facemasks and hand sanitizers proved themselves much opportunist who after sensing possible outbreak of coronavirus in Pakistan made availability of these items as almost rare thing to extort huge money out of pockets of the citizens.
This was the government which was supposed to take measures to discourage these elements from hoarding facemasks and hand sanitizers and it had enough time to do so. However, timely measures could not be taken and these two items have become rare commodities nowadays.
The news items with regard to outbreak of coronavirus in our neighbouring country China have been making headlines in the world for the past around two months.
The government as claimed by Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan was fully aware about these developments. This scribe believes that the government was also fully aware about precautionary measures which were supposed to be taken by it to control the pandemic in Pakistan.
However, it seems that availability of these two items were not on the preferential list of the government.
So far there are no concrete reports of finding proper medicines to control this pandemic and social distancing and self-isolation seem to be only measures which one may take to avoid this outbreak.
However, on occasions one needs to interact with others despite fulfilling all these precautionary measures. Wearing facemask and use of hand sanitizers may be a solution while interacting with others when required.
The dust-masks are bit easily available on Murree Road which are being sold by young entrepreneurs on a few spots in the city. Most of these entrepreneurs are teenage kids who themselves are fully exposed to contract the pandemic. However, earning a few rupees profit in this business is forcing them to keep standing on streets while fully being exposed to the threat of the pandemic.
This scribe attempted to find facemasks and hand sanitizers on numerous medical stores situated along Murree Road, Rawalpindi but couldn’t find these merchandises easily.
A worker of a medical store was generous enough to award two facemasks to this writer against payment of Rs40 at Committee Chowk, Rawalpindi. However, for this purpose he also demanded National Identity Card and he dully registered its number on a paper before awarding these two precious facemasks to the scribe.
The government knows it better than anyone else that these two items are very necessary for each and every citizen of Pakistan.
It should make it sure that these two items are available at each and every medical outlet in the country on affordable rate if it could not provide them free of cost.
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