90 coronavirus suspects quarantined in KP varsities

PESHAWAR: Several quarantine centres have been established in a number of universities and other seats of higher education where some 90 suspects of coronavirus have been kept.

The stiff resistance from the administration, teaching fraternity, students and other inmates of the universities failed to convince the provincial government and district administrations to set up the quarantine centre away from cities, particularly the educational institutions.

The critics believed that the quarantine centres would become a source for the virus to enter the campuses, especially the thickly populated Greater Campus in the provincial metropolis. They argued that once the virus makes an entry into this vast campus which houses a number of universities, colleges, schools and other institutes, it would be difficult to disinfect it.

However, the active campaigning of the administration and the representative bodies of the teachers of the university resulted in establishing only one isolation point inside the campus and two more in its buildings opposite the campus on the main Jamrud Road. The quarantine centre inside the walled campus of the University of Peshawar has been set up at the International Hostel, a facility meant for teachers and foreign students. A total of 27 teachers and 10 students were living in the 40 rooms of the hostel when it was turned into a quarantine centre.

According to Ali Imran, spokesman for the University of Peshawar, the teachers and foreign students have been shifted to a nearby makeshift facility.The two other isolation centres, he said, have been established at the newly constructed 55-room building of a hostel of the University Public School and a hostel of the University College for Boys, which has over 40 rooms. However, he added that nobody has been brought to the three centres yet.

The majority of the suspected patients have been admitted to the isolation centre-cum-makeshift hospital at the Garden Campus of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan. According to Sajjad Ali Shah, director administration of the university, two hostels have been handed over to the district administration where the isolation centres/hospitals have been set up where more than 80 suspected patients have been kept.

It merits a mention here that Mardan is the worst affected district in the province as 84 people infected by the coronavirus have been confirmed in the district with one death. Saadat Khan, the first person to die from the disease in Pakistan also belonged to Mardan.

Three isolation centres have been set up in the hostels of the University of Engineering and Technology in Peshawar. One of these centres has been established at the faculty hostel in Hayatabad and two in the hostels of the university’s Jalozai Campus.

Director media of the university Shumaila Farooq said that nine suspects have been quarantined in these centres so far. She added that the university could offer more space to the district administration if needed.

Moreover, in the University of Science and Technology in Bannu, a quarantine centre has been established at the New Girls Hostel at the Main Campus of the university with a capacity of 100 persons. However, the university’s focal persons said nobody has been brought to this quarantine centre until now.