The World Health Organisation has expressed concern about Pakistan’s government’s failure to decide about school closures in light of the growing Covid-19 in the country, proclaiming educational institutions a major source of coronavirus transmission.
The WHO representatives based in Islamabad told Dawn that the Covid-19 positivity in the general population would increase if the educational institutions received more staff members and students with positive coronavirus.
According to WHO, schools needed to be closed to decrease the incidence of coronavirus. Although most of the infected cases reported in educational institutions were young and were safe from complications but were infection carriers and had the potential to affect people in their families and communities.
“The Covid-19 positivity rate among students and employees of educational institutions in the country is continuing to increase. The health department recorded 1.12 per cent positivity in schools on Oct 16 when the random testing began but it reached two per cent on Nov 16 (Monday) raining an alarm as schools are a source of escalating the infection to the families,” a WHO official told Dawn.
