Sindh health department decides to conduct Covid-19 tests at schools

KARACHI: The Sindh health department on Sunday decided to conduct coronavirus tests at schools across the province.

A notification in this regard has been issued to all the district health officers, Bol news reported. As per details, 100 samples will be collected from schools in each district. Then the samples will be sent to Dow Hospital’s Coronavirus testing lab.

Read more: Sindh decides to continue educational activities amid rising Covid cases

The Coronavirus Task Force will decide whether to keep the school closed or open in view of the ratio of the viral disease.

Nine deaths and 4,027 new cases of Coronavirus have been reported in Pakistan during the last 24 hours.

In a tweet on Sunday, the National Command and Operation Center said that 51,236 tests were conducted during the said period and positivity ratio remained 7.8 per cent. It said 752 patients are in critical condition.

The NCOC has advised for taking stringent measures to tackle rising trend of Omicron cases and proposed non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs).

In a meeting held in Islamabad, the forum decided to extensively engage with provinces especially Sindh for necessary measures to tackle the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

The NCOC reviewed the existing NPIs and called on interprovincial health and education ministers session on January 17, 2022 to suggest the new set of NPIs.

Read more: Positivity ratio of coronavirus cases reaches 8.16% in Pakistan: NCOC

The NCOC asked the federating units to take strict measures against violators of existing SOPs and ensure enforcement of obligatory vaccination regime.