Public sector universities to be converted into quarantine facilities in Punjab

The Punjab government planned to transform hostels of public sector universities into quarantine facilities, report said.

The plan would be implemented across the province, in case of any emergency, in order to provide isolation to the infected persons of COVID-19.

The Higher Education Department (HED) Punjab on Sunday issued guidelines to Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of all non-private universities to get hostels of their respective universities vacated.

Several universities had already got their hostels vacated after the federal government instructed to shut down the campuses across the country in order to control the spread of coronavirus.

However, after the HED notice all the hostels of public universities were got vacated by Sunday night.

It is worth noting here, Punjab University with 8,000 plus boarding students has the maximum number of hostel facilities for the boarding students. Punjab University has a total of 28 hostels – 12 are for female students while the rest are for male students.

A government official said the move has taken at free up space in hospitals for more seriously ill patients in case of a potential larger outbreak of coronavirus as seen in different countries of the world.

According to the PU Registrar Dr. Khalid Khan, the university has over 100 foreign boarding students who are mostly from Sudan, Somalia, Nepal, China and other parts of the world and they have been adjusted in two separate hostels after rest of the hostels were got vacated.