NCC meeting will decide future of lockdown this week: Asad Umar.

ISLAMABAD -- Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, Asad Umar on Sunday said the National Coordination Committee on Coronavirus would decide about the future course of lockdown after analysis and observations to be presented by National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

The meeting would be held this week with Prime Minister Imran Khan in chair, to decide the post May, 9 scenario in the country.

Addressing a televised press briefing here, Asad Umar said the NCOC would share all its analysis about coronavirus in the meeting of NCC.

'We do not follow the West blindly and the future decisions would also be taken according to our own ground realities,' he remarked.

He said keeping in view the growing number of deaths in the country, the people should adopt strict protective measures against COVID-19.

He said for last six days, on average, 24 people were dying of the disease daily but still the disease had not proven to be as chronic as in Europe and the US.

Comparing death rate of various countries in 46 days after 100 deaths, the minister said in Spain 414 people out of one million populations died while in Italy the number was 405, 256 in France, 248 in UK and 116 in US while in Pakistan only two coronavirus patients died out of one million populations.

On average, he said as compared to Pakistan, the US had 58 percent more deaths, UK had 124 percent more deaths while Spain had 207 more deaths.

Asad Umar who also chairs NCOC, said there could be certain reasons behind low death rate in this region, adding that no one could claim to completely eradicate this disease.

He said every country was trying to flatten the curve to control the disease at a certain level.

About the question why the government was not opening up everything if it thought that the disease was not so dangerous, the minister said 'We are not opening up everything because we do not want to put burden on health system'.

Following deteriorating conditions of economy during current situation, Asad Umar feared that around 18 million people could lose their jobs in the country due to ongoing lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease.

According to calculations of Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), around 20 million 70 million population of the country could fall...