By Abid Usman
As governments across the globe ramp up preventive measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, many countries have already brought back citizens who were stuck abroad in countries badly impacted by the virus. However, some governments are still reluctant to do so, chiefly because they lack the resources needed to tackle the direct and indirect consequences of the pandemic. Citizens brought back from virus-stricken countries have been placed in isolation inside makeshift quarantine centres all around the world by utilising various structures, such as military bases, hotels and even cruise ships. Pakistan, alongside a few other countries, has put into practice the controversial decision of utilising public university hostels as temporary quarantine centres to accommodate a growing list of suspected coronavirus patients.
Initially, the move was restricted to hostels of public universities not located in the vicinity of densely-populated urban centres, like the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore’s Kala Shah Kaku campus, University Of Agriculture, and Bannu University of Science and Technology. But the need for more quarantine facilities increased as the number of imported coronavirus cases rose, hence resulting in more local transmissions. Consequently, the district administration asked universities like UET to provide one of its hostels located in the main campus (in the heart of Lahore) for quarantine purposes. The purpose of this is to ensure that hospitals have enough space to attend to critically ill patients. But this demand has been meeting resistance from the teaching staff, non-teaching staff, as well as those students already residing in the main campus. Nonetheless, some universities, although located in densely populated areas have chosen to abide by the directives of government, such as the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, University of Peshawar, and Gomal University.
The ramifications of this initiative could range from mild to severe. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has stated that it is still not certain as to how long the virus survives on most surfaces. It may persist on a given surface for a few hours or up to several days depending upon the type of surface and the temperature of the room. In light of this, one wonders whether adequate measures are in place to ensure that these hostels are thoroughly disinfected since a failure to do so could result in long-term problems. Sooner or later these educational institutions will have to reopen and it will be the responsibility of the state to ensure a virus free environment in these hostels. Given that currently there is no vaccine available for this pandemic, it would be foolish to house students anytime soon in the same contaminated environment where coronavirus patients have been cared for. The loss of study hours, research, as well as co-curricular and extracurricular activities is another issue altogether. There is also the risk of an increase in the proliferation of the virus, especially in campuses which are housing teaching and non-teaching staff already due to a sharing of common areas, a lack of discipline among those quarantined, and the risk of infection of support staff deputed in these hostels.
The psychological tension which the former residents of the hostels are going through and will potentially go through later on has also largely been ignored by the authorities. When the authorities implemented this measure, hostel rooms still had many belongings of students which were relocated sloppily and without proper tagging, counter to the instructions of the higher education departments. Inter-city travel bans for public transport and lockdown directives worsened the situation for students from far-flung areas who are now worried about their personal belongings, including their important documents. The minute these quarantine hostels are vacated, and even if all preventive procedures are undertaken, students will still be hesitant to occupy the same rooms as those inhabited by coronavirus patients.
Consequently, shortly after the decision of using varsity hostels as quarantine centres and isolation wards was taken, the Sindh government decided to utilise the spacious Karachi Expo Centre as a 1200-bed isolation facility. The Punjab government followed suit and established a 1000-bed facility at the Lahore Expo Centre. Hence, there are alternative options available which can prove to be more viable in the long run as compared to using hostels as quarantine centres.
