PESHAWAR: The public sector Khyber Medical College on Saturday closed its only hostel for girls after five students tested positive for coronavirus.

However, the college and attached Khyber Teaching Hospital will stay open.

The Covid-19 patients were quarantined in private rooms of the KTH.

The administration held an emergency meeting with KMC Dean Prof Mahmud Aurangzeb in the chair and ordered the screening of all students living in hostels, which recorded the cases.

“We collected swabs from 198 girl students of the KMC hostel located in the University of Peshawar and sent them to lab for testing. The test results will be disclosed tomorrow (Sunday),” KTH media and protocol officer Farhad Khan told Dawn.

Patients quarantined in private rooms of attached hospital

He said the hostel residents, who tested positive for Covid-19, had close contacts with every others and developed coronavirus symptoms and therefore, they underwent tests.

“We’ve informed their [students’] parents about the infection. Their close contacts will be tested for the virus in accordance with the prescribed protocols,” he said.

The KTH media officer said the college had reopened hostels on Oct 17 in line with the instructions of the Higher Education Commission and KMU.

He said the students with coronavirus symptoms had been tested and two of them were diagnosed with the virus.

Mr Farhad said both confirmed patients were quarantined in their homes and were allowed to return only after testing negative for Covid-19.

“We have decided about the testing of around 500 students and staff members of the KMC male student hostels, which are also located in the university. Instructions have already been issued to the students and staff of the hospital, college and hostels to undergo Covid-19 tests in case of the appearance of symptoms,” he said.

The KTH media officer said staffers and students of the hospital and college were told from time to time to adhere to social distancing measures, use face masks and sanitise hands to prevent the virus.

Meanwhile, officials at the directorate of health services fear the prevalence of Covid-19 among the students of universities and urged the university administrations to screen students for coronavirus.

They told Dawn that there was no Covid-19 testing of students in the University Model School and University Public School, both constituents of the University of Peshawar, while same was the case with the Islamia College and its constituent Islamia Collegiate, where most students neither followed precautionary measures against coronavirus nor were they tested for the virus.

The officials said the health department had begun the screening of students and staff on Oct 15 and had so far collected 22,222 swabs from 17 districts on random basis and 225 of them tested positive for the virus.

They said 17,901 samples had turned out to be negative, while the results of 4,096 were awaited.

The officials said the department, which was taking swabs from 1,500 students and staff members of schools every day, had recorded incidence among 1.25 per cent of them, which wasn’t dangerous.

They said the confirmed cases were advised to stay in isolation to prevent the virus transmission to the elderly people in their homes and communities.

“The same danger prevails in students as they are safe even if they test positive due to their young ages. However, they can infect others. In this light, we want universities to screen students and ensure that the infection doesn’t spread,” an official said.

He said the University of Peshawar had assured the health department that it would take measures on their own to prevent the spread of coronavirus and therefore, the latter didn’t cover it.

Our correspondent from Chitral adds: Two schools were closed in Upper Chitral district for five days on Saturday after their five teachers tested positive for coronavirus.

Upper Chitral deputy commissioner Shah Saud told Dawn that three Covid-19 cases were reported in the Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Warijun, and two in the Government Girls’ High School, Booni.

He said the cases were detected during random testing carried out after the recent reopening of educational institutions.

The DC said the affected teachers would undergo home quarantine for a fortnight.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2020