Balochistan detects 67 Covid-19 cases in testing at schools

QUETTA: Balochistan diagnosed 67 cases of Covid-19 during random testing at various educational institutions in the province, ARY News reported on Saturday.

Provincial health department while random testing from September 07 to 18, diagnosed coronavirus cases in scores of schools, according to details.

The ratio of positive cases has been 14.3 percent, the health department said.

The health officials conducted 950 tests of teachers, non-teaching staff and students at schools and detected 67 cases, while 403 tests found negative.

The reports of 480 cases yet to be released, the health department said.

It is to be mentioned here that 10 educational institutions have been closed in Balochistan after positive cases of novel coronavirus found in teachers and students at Quetta, Gwadar, Chaman and other districts of the province.

Pakistan started phased opening of schools from September 16, which began from the 9th class and onward. But during first week of the opening of the educational institutions several cases have been reported and authorities have announced to shut scores of the affected schools.

Five schools were shut in Gujranwala after as many as 24 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus surfaced there.

Several schools have been closed, some of them for indefinite period, after detection of coronavirus cases.

Moreover, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Sept 18 said that 13 more educational institutes were sealed in the last 24 hours for not following standard operating procedures (SOPs) designed to prevent resurgence of coronavirus.

Of them, ten educational institutes were forced to shut in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) while three were sealed in Sindh.