An Assessment Of Secondary School Preparedness In Responding To Covid-19 Epidemic In Rawalpindi, Pakistan: Implications And Limitations

As long as COVID-19 prevails, safe operations of schools are contingent upon formulating a preparedness plan to take reasonable measures to protect the health of students and school staff. We investigated the levels of awareness and preparedness for COVID-19 epidemic among staff in publicly administered schools in Rawalpindidistrict, Pakistan and assessed preventive measures undertaken for an infection free environment. Two hundred secondary schools in district Rawalpindi, participated in this cross-sectional study. Interview data from 400 school principals and administrators were collected using an interview questionnaire and a school profile checklist was filled through observing preparedness indicators. A mean score within each domain of knowledge, preparedness and practices, was calculated and scores among schools were compared using one-way ANOVA. Respondents were fairly knowledgeable about protection and transmission of COVID-19. However, preparedness and practices of public health measure was inadequate. Although 85%, schools have assigned focal person and 73% reported about sharing school preparedness policy, more disease-specific preparedness including room allocation to isolate suspected COVID-19 cases was established in 46% schools while only 14% of schools had thermometers to check temperature. Results of ANOVA showed significant differences among schools types across each domain of knowledge (p value < 0.05), preparedness (p value < 0.05), and practices (p value < 0.01). Schools are not well equipped to confront COVID-19 and the level of preparedness is inadequate to ensure a safe environment. The training of school staff and monitoring mechanism to support implementation of safety guidelines is contingent.