Corona cloud

Everywhere we look in the country, people seem to have forgotten that the Covid-19 virus has not vanished. It still lurks in the background, and there is a danger that it could make a resurgence as schools and colleges reopen today and winter falls in northern parts of the country. This has been the experience in many Western countries, including the US where there have been outbreaks of the virus immediately after colleges began opening and students moved into dorms.

It is not certain what the situation in Pakistan will be for now. But with people failing to take any further precautionary measures, and the idea of mask-wearing or maintaining social distance having disappeared, there could be a very sudden upsurge in cases in places such as educational institutions. To prevent this, it is important that the government reemphasizes the need to follow the detailed SOPs it has laid down. But at the same time, it is also true that for many schools, especially those in the public sector, and the smaller private-sector schools, it is in fact impossible to follow these rules. There's not enough space, not enough money, not enough interest to follow social distancing; to place chairs six feet away from each other; or even to buy material such as hand sanitizers.

According to surveys conducted over the years, many of our government schools lack proper hand washing or sanitation facilities. And this can only encourage the spread of Covid-19. We also will need to see how far students, especially younger ones, follow mask-wearing rules or abide by the other restrictions laid down. It seems unlikely that these will be adhered to in many places. We have seen in other countries that winter has already started to bring in a rise in Covid-19 cases. This can be seen in Spain, where the graph of cases is rising rapidly and in other countries in Western Europe, as well as in parts of the US. Very soon we will hit our winter season in northern parts of the country.

In this situation, with crowded classrooms inevitable in some areas at least, we will need to guard carefully against the spread of the coronavirus. The government not only needs to threaten schools by warning them that they will be closed down if they failed to follow rules, but also offer them help in implementing the SOPs put in place so that it is possible for them to avoid Covid-19 and prevent the upsurge in cases, which could lead to yet a new round of the virus, which experts are now saying can strike a second time, even if a victim has suffered it previously. This is a dangerous situation and as yet there is no vaccine in sight. Precautionary measures are the only tool we have and we will need to see how carefully these are followed.