The COVID-19 outbreak started as pneumonia in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The subsequent pandemic was declared as the sixth public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020, by the World Health Organization. Pakistan could be a potential hotspot for COVID-19 owing to its high population of 204.65 million and its struggling health care and economic systems. Pakistan was able to tackle the challenge with relatively mild repercussions. The present analysis has been conducted to highlight the situation of the disease in Pakistan in 2020 and the measures taken by various stakeholders coupled with support from the community to abate the risk of catastrophic spread of the virus.
Keywords: COVID-19; Pakistan; community health; coronavirus; epidemic; epidemiology; pandemic; public health emergency of international concern.
©Hashaam Akhtar, Maham Afridi, Samar Akhtar, Hamaad Ahmad, Sabahat Ali, Sundas Khalid, Sajid Mahmood Awan, Shahzaib Jahangiri, Yousef Saleh Khader. Originally published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (https://publichealth.jmir.org), 19.05.2021.