Moving ahead in 2021

This week, our federal minister for education and the provincial heads of education departments across the country will once again go into a huddle to decide whether to re-open educational institutions in January.

Once again there are calls for re-opening schools, colleges, and universities so that in-person instruction can resume. Schools have suffered greatly because of the closures. But so have students and their parents. Online instruction, as mandated by the government, has many problems especially for younger students.

Year 2020 has been a roller-coaster ride for both schools and students. It is a tricky decision in which there is no right or wrong. It may be recalled that educational institutions were closed twice last year across the country as part of measures to stem the spread of coronavirus. Now they are scheduled to reopen on January 11 after the ongoing winter break.

The Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference, which had decided to close schools, colleges, and universities from November 26 for in-person classes, will meet on January 4 to review the pandemic situation in the country and take a decision about the reopening of educational institutions.

The federal education minister, after a meeting with school managements, tweeted, “They [visitors] are obviously concerned about schools’ closure. I told them that I am equally concerned. [I] Hope infection rates go down so that we can open all educational institutions.”

Overall, the situation remains fluid. While we wait for a vaccine that will help fight the pandemic, we have to be mindful of the fact that SOPs cannot be ignored. They need to be observed as much as possible as we look into a phase of uncertainty for the next few months to see the overall effects of the different vaccines available.

We are told that Pakistan has ordered vaccines from China. We are also informed the results of trials conducted in Pakistani hospitals have been encouraging. This is generally a good sign. There is optimism.

At the same time, experts have told us time and again that there is no going back to the old carefree ways. Regardless of the vaccine and its efficacy, we have to be mindful of a number of things so that we are not again placed into lockdown situations.

All this affects us in many ways. Apart from the social restrictions, we have seen how badly this pandemic has affected daily activities like education, commerce and general movement of people. Business continues to close. People continue to die.

The death toll and the number infected do not seem to be very encouraging. The numbers keep on rising and then come the inexplicable fall.

The national tally of active Covid-19 cases in Pakistan last week reached 34,773 with 2,463 more people testing positive and 2,156 patients recovering during the 24 hours.

Seventy-one corona patients, of whom 61 were under treatment in hospitals and 10 in their respective homes or quarantines, died last week, according to the National command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

Most of deaths occurred in Punjab followed by Sindh. Out of the total 71 deaths, 39 happened on the ventilator. No affected person was on a ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), while 300 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in Pakistan.

Maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas including Multan 37 per cent, ICT 38 per cent, Peshawar 34 per cent and Lahore 32 per cent. Oxygen beds were also occupied in four major areas with 35 per cent in ICT, 30 per cent in Karachi, 58 per cent in Peshawar and 39 per cent in Multan.

Around 41,039 tests were conducted across the country last week. So far 437,229 people have recovered across Pakistan, making it a significant count. Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 482,178 cases have been detected. Sadly, around 10,176 deaths have been recorded since the eruption of the contagion. The lesson in all this is simple.

We need to understand that the battle against Covid hasn’t been won. We have just set the stage for making ourselves safer from this unpredictable curse. At the same time, we are reminded time and again that social distancing and taking necessary precautions is the best policy forward. Let us move ahead keeping this in mind.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2021.

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