Pakistan prepares for Eid, rattled by India's second wave

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At a mosque in Lahore last week, hundreds of worshippers crowded together สูตร slotxo during Friday prayers. The vast majority wore masks, but they prayed shoulder to shoulder.

"You're right, there should've been gaps between us," said one man a little sheepishly. "God knows if the virus is there or not, but it's important to be careful."

Others were more bullish. "As long as you wear a mask it's fine," said another. "We only fear God, not corona."

The terrible scenes from the Covid crisis across the border in India, however, have rattled officials and medical professionals in Pakistan. Last month, cases began rising dramatically here too, a result, it is thought, of the spread of the more infectious UK variant of the disease. There were significantly more critical patients than at any time since the outset of the pandemic.

Then, just as it seemed as if the healthcare system might be overwhelmed, with senior politicians warning that oxygen capacity was being dangerously stretched, admission rates began to stabilise, and then fall back.

There is still pressure on hospitals, with more patients requiring intensive care treatment even than the time of the country's first "peak", last year. In Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city, about 75% of beds with ventilators in public hospitals are currently occupied.

Professor Saqib Saeed, the CEO of Mayo Hospital in Lahore, told the BBC he believed the images of people dying outside hospitals in India had "a terrifying effect" on the public, improving mask wearing and social distancing, and so reducing transmission. But he warned that with "limited resources" and "limited numbers of beds" hospitals would struggle to cope with any further dramatic rise in cases.