At least 22 educational institutions closed across country in 48 hours

At least 22 educational institutions across Pakistan have been closed in the last 48 hours due to non-compliance of health protocols or standard operating procedures (SOPs), according to the National Command Operation Center official.

Sixteen educational institutions were closed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), one in Islamabad and five in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

The educational institutions re-opened on September 15 after they were closed in March due to the outbreak of Covid-19 virus.

The Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi had been closed for two days after the emergence of a Covid-19 case on September 16.

Both the Karachi University and city campus located in metropolis' Garden locality will remain closed and all educational activities during the aforementioned period would be suspended while students and teachers would not be allowed to enter the premises of both the campuses. However, the spokesperson of IBA said that non-teaching faculty members would continue their duties as per routine.

Sources told The Express Tribune that the first case emerged in the hostel of the IBA's Karachi University campus. The affected student had recently joined the university from Islamabad and had been taking classes along with other students.

Earlier it was reported that a day after schools resumed in the province, at least eight teachers of a government-run school K-P tested positive for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19).

This was confirmed by the K-P Elementary and Secondary Education Department (ESED) in a statement on September 16.

The statement read that eight teachers of the Government High School No.1 in Peshawar Cantonment have tested positive for the virus.

The teachers, who had tested positive, had their swab samples collected along with others a week ago. Their results were received on Tuesday which confirmed that seven of them had Covid-19, it said.

The infected teachers have been sent home on a 15-day medical leave.

Meanwhile, academic activities in other schools of the province continued with strict Covid-19 precautionary measures.

The statement stated there was no threat of virus transmission in the school as the infected teachers never came in contact with the students.

The ESED statement added that samples from the infected teachers will be collected after a while to see if they had recovered.