What can we do to salvage Pakistan’s Covid-19 response?

Zulfiqar A Bhutta, Founding Director of the Institute for Global Health & Development at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan, writes that Pakistan must first debunk the widespread misperception that Covid-19 is a relatively harmless disease and will somehow spare the country. It is a potentially lethal virus and is now also known to be associated with significant long-term consequences even among those infected with negligible or mild symptoms. He adds that protective measures such as the use of masks, hand hygiene and physical distancing must be universal with no exceptions. Even if a vaccine were to somehow arrive and become available, the virus will be among us for much of 2021.