63 contract virus as schools reopen
63 students, teachers, and staff members across 443 universities and schools were diagnosed positive through randomized and smart sampling at campuses, revealed the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department. A total of 28,887 tests were conducted; one case emerged from 1,770 samples taken from universities, 21 individuals were confirmed positive from 20,178 tests conducted in higher secondary schools, and 41 infections were detected from 6,168 samples from secondary education institutions.
A total of nine classrooms across various institutions in Punjab were sealed over SOP violations and disease prevalence. Meanwhile, a private school in Islamabad’s Chatta Bakhtawar and a private college in the city’s Bahria Town were sealed for five days after the emergence of a COVID-19 case in each institution. Around 5,500 tests in private schools in the region found ten coronavirus cases, while nine were detected via over 6,000 tests in public schools in the region since the reopening of educational institutions.
COVID-19 situation update
Pakistan crossed the 7,000 active cases threshold as 582 fresh cases emerged on Monday, September 21, against 36,155 tests, revealing a case positivity rate of 1.61%. Three patients in Sindh and one in Punjab succumbed to the virus as the national death rate remains static at 2.1%. Moreover, the recovery rate dropped down to 95.5% from 95.7% on Saturday, September 19 as 290 managed to recover from the virus.