PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has ordered closure of schools in eight more districts after spike in the level of Covid-19 incidence.

The decision was made in a meeting of Provincial Task Force on Covid-19 here on Tuesday with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair, said a statement.

The meeting approved the recommendations of health department to shut down schools in Charsadda, Nowshera, Mardan, Swabi, Kohat, Malakand, Swat and Dir Lower due to rise in the number of Covid-19 cases. It also approved plan to close educational institutors in other areas recording five per cent Covid-19 positivity.

The schools in Peshawar were already closed down by National Command and Operation Centre.

Task force orders strict SOP implementation to prevent spread of virus

Meanwhile, 10 people died and 440 cases of Covid-19 were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last 24 hours, a health department report said. It said that the province’s mortalities reached 2,179 and cases were 76, 819 since onset of the pandemic. Of the infected people, 70,861 (92.7 per cent) have recovered so far. There are 3,536 active coronavirus cases in the province now.

The meeting of the task force discussed overall coronavirus situation in the province and measures so far taken to control of transmission of the virus and ordered that elaborate arrangements should be put in place to deal with the patients.

The members of provincial cabinet, Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Shahram Khan Tarakai, Shaukat Yousafzai and Kamran Bangash, besides Corps Commander Peshawar Lt Gen Nauman Mahmood, Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz, Inspector General of Police Dr Sanaullah Abbasi and others high ranking officials attended the meeting.

The meeting also decided to constitute a committee comprising cabinet members Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Shaukat Yousafzai and Kamran Bangash to consult representatives of business community and submit proposals regarding the possible closure of markets in order to prevent spread of the virus.

On the occasion, the participants of the meeting were informed that positivity ratio of coronavirs was less than one per cent in the southern parts of the province. The task force conditionally allowed holding of Derajat Festival and jeep rally in Dera Ismail Khan district and directed the quarters concerned to strictly implement Covid-19 SOPs during the festival. The meeting decided that all the activities of the festival would be cancelled if standard operating procedure for coronavirus was not followed.

The chief minister, on this occasion, directed the relevant officials to ensure implementation of SOP in letter and spirit in those areas where positivity ratio of coronavirus cases was on the rise. He expressed concerns over the increasing number of Covid-19 patients in the province.

The chief minister appealed to people to strictly adhere to precautionary measures and SOP issued by the government to remain safe from the pandemic. He said that all the people, especially the business community, should cooperate with the government and administration in connection with enforcement of SOP in the markets and at other business places.

Meanwhile, vaccination of frontline health workers and elderly people is in progress in the province. A total of 28,500 healthcare workers have been vaccinated so far in 36 districts.

A total of 3,404 healthcare workers received second dose of the vaccine while 3,995 senior citizens of 60 and above were also vaccinated.

Khyber Medical University Vice-chancellor Prof Ziaul Haq received Covid-19 vaccine at Hayatabad Medical Complex. On the occasion, HMC Medical Director Prof Shehzad Akbar Khan also appealed to the people to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Vaccination of senior doctors has helped to motivate other health workers and common people to get inoculated.

Initially there was vaccine-hesitancy among health workers but later vaccination of senior medics encouraged them to come forward.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2021