Schools, colleges sealed for SOP violations
Several private and public educational institutions across the country were sealed for failing to implement COVID-19 SOPs, as well as due to an increasing number of students, teachers and staff members contracting the highly infectious virus. A total of 25 institutions in Peshawar, five in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and one in Islamabad have been closed down as for September 18.
Meanwhile, four schools in colleges in Karachi’s Orangi Town after an unannounced inspection by Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani saw that the schools failed to adhere to health guidelines issued by the government. Educational institutes in Karachi’s Kharadar, and in Hyderabad also forced to close temporarily for the same reasons. As a result of the prevailing situation, the Sindh Government has decided to push back phase two of their on-campus learning strategy by a week.
Students, teachers emerge positive
21 staffers and students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been diagnosed positive for the novel coronavirus disease as of Friday, September 18. The provincial health department has recommended sealing another two schools and two classes where 13 of these cases were detected. Meanwhile in Punjab, 34 students tested positive for COVID-19 between September 16 to September 18, while a total of seven staffers in Islamabad have contracted the virus since the reopening of schools.
COVID-19 situation update
Four fatalities in Sindh, and one each in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan raised the death toll to 6,415 on September 18. The case fatality rate currently stands at 2.1%, while the case positivity rate reaches 1.8% as 645 cases emerged against 35,720 tests in the same time frame. The recovery rate dropped to 95.7% from 95.9% as 361 manage to beat the virus in the past 24 hours.