Reopening of educational institutions may cause further spread of coronavirus

Islamabad : Coronavirus illness, COVID-19 has claimed one life from the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi in the last 24 hours though as many as 707 new patients have been tested positive for the illness hinting that the spread of coronavirus is still much faster at least here in this region of the country.

According to many health experts, the resumption of educational institutions to operate classes from 9th to 12th grade along with O/A level from April 19 may cause further spread of the disease in the region. Experts say that the concerned government authorities should rethink the decision of reopening of educational institutions at least until the positivity rate does not come below five per cent in the region.

The lowest positivity rate of COVID-19 from Islamabad Capital Territory in the last one week has been recorded as 9.24 per cent, on April 10 while the highest was 11.36 per cent, on April 12. The positivity rate turned out to be 10.03 per cent in the federal capital in the last 24 hours that is still much higher.

On Friday, the number of active cases from the twin cities has been recorded as 15,200 that makes around 19.38 per cent of all active cases present in the country. A total of 78,425 active cases were there in the country on Friday.

District Health Officer ICT Dr. Muhammad Zaeem Zia informed ‘The News’ on Friday that the data compiled for Thursday shows that as many as 102 children below 10 years of age and 50 between the age of 11 and 20 years have been tested positive for the illness out of 575 cases reported from the federal capital on Thursday.

In the last 24 hours, the virus claimed one more life from ICT taking the death toll to 626 while 599 new patients have been reported from the federal capital taking the tally to 68,665 of which 55,222 patients have already recovered, he said.

It is important that there were 12,817 active cases of the disease from the federal capital on Friday.

Data collected by ‘The News’ reveals that in the last 24 hours, the virus has not claimed any life from Rawalpindi district from where as many as 813 patients have already died of coronavirus illness. Another 108 patients were tested positive from the district taking the tally to 20,065. To date, a total of 16,869 confirmed patients from the district have recovered from COVID-19.

On Friday, there were a total of 2383 active cases of the disease from Rawalpindi district of which 142 were undergoing treatment at the healthcare facilities while 2,241 confirmed patients were in the home isolation.