ISLAMABAD, Sep 22 (APP): Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan on Tuesday urged the school administrations and parents to ensure implementation of SOPs (standard operating procedures) for COVID-19 pandemic.
Addressing a press conference here at Press Information Department (PID) flanked by Minister for Federal Education Shafqat Mahmood, he asked people to wear masks, especially in closed areas to curb the spread of coronavirus.
He said that a comprehensive strategy was devised to reopen educational institutions in the country. He said there was no significant change after the educational institutions reopened in the country.
Dr. Faisal Sultan said that on September 14, average infections was stood at 599 and after that the infections remained “somewhat the same”, adding that on September 21, the cases registered at 623 and on September 22 were 582 cases.
He said that in the month of September the total number of positive cases from tests conducted it has remained under 2 percent, while on September 21, 1.9 percent and on September 22 it was 1.61 percent.
He said that in the past week, the change in the number of cases was not significant enough to postpone the reopening of schools.
“In public institutes, over 74,000 tests were conducted and in private institutes, nearly 20,000 tests were taken. In Punjab’s public and private institutes, the ratio remained at 0.12 percent and 0.55 percent.
In Sindh province the positivity ratio stood at 0.76 percent and 0.88 percent in public and private institutes. While in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province the public educational institutes recorded 1.70 percent positivity and private institutes registered 0.86 percent, whereas, in Balochistan’s public institutes the ratio was 11.8 percent.
He informed that National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) would review the country’s infections ratio on daily basis as well as the results reported by testing centres near educational institutions that were allowed to open in the first phase.
