President Alvi wants people to bolster campaign against coronavirus

ISLAMABAD: With the coronavirus affected toll almost reaching 100 in Pakistan on Monday, President Arif Alvi took to social media on Sunday to encourage people to share what they did to fight the novel infection.

Taking to Twitter, he urged people, in a video message, to share what they had done today to battle the novel virus and “recruit every family member, relation & friend as a soldier”.

“With regard to coronavirus, I had shared a hadith of Prophet (PBUH) at the end of January, in which he advises against entering a land where there has been an outbreak of a plague and also against leaving the land if one is stuck there when the outbreak occurs.

“Given how it has been spreading, I have decided that this battle is my own. I’m not even talking about others; I’m also not talking about which government is doing what because when there’s a likelihood of this ‘storm’ entering every household,” he said.

The WAR against Coronavirus is my own & personal. I have to battle it in my house & recruit every family member, relation & friend as a soldier. I want YOU to fight with me & post ‘What you did today’ (everyday) on any SM forum Instagram/Twitter/TikTok. Please use #iFightCorona https://t.co/BCBPBNzbpS

— Dr. Arif Alvi (@ArifAlvi) March 15, 2020

“When I decided that this war is my own, I have decided to share what I have done so far,” he said, explaining how he ended up shaking hands with 4-5 people a day earlier and realised what he did midway while shaking hands with them.

“But I was embarrassed of what would happen had I refrained from shaking hands with those poor people. So I decided that should such a situation arise in the future, I would tell them myself how to greet and not shake hands,” he added.

He urged the whole nation to “bear this responsibility”.