The picture in Pakistan continues to be unclear, and worrying

Edited BY


G P Kennedy




Tassy -

Karachi, Pakistan








Despite being thousands of miles away, US election fever continued in Pakistan too. Indirectly most countries around the world are affected by who comes into power in the United States as indirect repercussions or ripples are felt by most. With two children based in North America, family members, and many friends based in the USA we felt the excitement and the nerves in the days that finally led to the declaration of Biden as president. 




The Government ruled out the option of a countrywide lockdown, despite rising numbers of cases. Smart lockdowns in select areas with higher cases of COVID continued.

A reduction in timings at markets and for all commercial activities to 10 pm (previously it was 11 pm or midnight) was enforced.

The enforcing of Standard Operating Procedures of mask-wearing however seemed to be in vain. I went to a crowded locality in an old part of Karachi and as you can see from the photo not everyone was wearing masks. Several of the people I see with masks tend to wear it on their chins, totally defeating the purpose.





In the meanwhile new rules were enforced at airports around the country for flights coming into Pakistan. Barring a list of 22 countries all other passengers would require a certificate issued by laboratories around the globe, in the previous 96 hours before arriving in Pakistan, stating that they were Covid free.

The list of the countries that were exempted from requiring these certificates, however, included countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia where Covid cases still remain high. So once again I’m not sure what criteria were used when selecting countries.







On a more personal front, I completed the third and last module of my Neuro-Linguistic Programming practitioner course. Yay!  For the last module that took place over the weekend that just went by,  mask-wearing was still not being strictly enforced.

At least 25 % more were donning their masks as compared to the last module just two weeks ago when I was one of three mask wearers. There were a few from the course who chose not to come in as they felt cold symptoms, so tuned in via Zoom.

The course gave me confidence and a sense of achievement. I plan on incorporating what I have learned in my yoga therapy practice.






For the first time in three months of me resuming my classes offering in-person yoga classes at my yoga studio, however, I had 2 people who told me they would stop coming to me temporarily because of the rise in COVID cases in the city. They felt uncomfortable and chose to stay at home or continue the class on Zoom. I am not sure what the coming weeks will be like, but right now having just been through an empowering NLP course I remain full of positivity. And on that note, I wish you all a good week ahead.

 


 

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