LAHORE: The government has converted all public sector universities’ hostels into quarantine centres as an immediate arrangement for likely coronavirus patients as health authorities confirmed first COVID-19 case in the Punjab capital on Sunday.

A senior Higher Education Department (HED) official told Dawn that hostels were being vacated and cleaned as a precautionary measure to turn rooms into quarantine centres. However, some vice chancellors of these universities Dawn talked to were not aware of the purpose of vacating and cleaning of the hostels.

The 54-year-old patient admitted to Mayo Hospital on Saturday night had returned from the UK on March 10. Health authorities say that all contacts of the patient had tested negative for the virus.

The Punjab Higher Education Commission (HED) issued directions to all the public sector universities to immediately vacate male and female hostels in their campuses till 8 pm on Sunday (yesterday).

The university administrations were told to clean all hostels and shift belongings of students, if there were any, to store rooms after properly tagging them for identity.

According to a notification available with Dawn, the chief secretary called an urgent meeting on Sunday morning and directed administrations of all public sector universities to vacate hostels. It further asked them not to engage teaching staff in academic work till April 5 and only engage non-teaching administrative staff in inevitable conditions.

“It is advised that only skeleton staff in the VC and registrar offices plus hostel wardens may only be engaged,” reads the directive.

It further states that all universities must get their hostels vacated by Sunday. In case any student intends to leave his belongings, those must be stored in some separate store rooms under the supervision of respective hostel wardens and the student be provided with some token/slip, so that he can claim his belongings after the hostels reopen.

The government has already converted the New Campus of the Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan, into a quarantine to accommodate 1740 people in 130 rooms.

The senior official said that the decision was taken in the meeting with chief secretary to develop quarantine facility at hostels.

He said they were taking precautionary measures to tackle the pandemic in case it spread in the thickly-populated province of the country. He said the government did not want to make quarantine centres in hospitals in view of health of other patients.

Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Niaz Ahmed Akhtar confirmed creation of a quarantine for 3,000 people in hotels and in the institute of molecular biology building.

He said the PU had received request from the Gilgit Baltistan government to allow stay of their students in hostels and they were working on it.

He said special measures had also been taken for foreign students studying in the university and they would be facilitated in any situation.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2020