Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Faisal Sultan responding to the queries from various sectors about possible COVID-19 spread in the wake of MDCAT exam said with risk mitigation the two-and-half-hour medical entry test examination will not pose much risk of coronavirus spread.

In a tweet, Dr Faisal Sultan said, “For those comparing the MDCAT examination [one exam, of 2.5 hours] with the overall closure of the education sector, here is a graphic to put things in perspective.”

Dr Faisal Sultan said no activity is zero risk but in epidemics, we do risk mitigation.

https://twitter.com/fslsltn/status/1331895732350181376

He shared a comparison graph that demonstrates that the MDCAT entry exam will not pose much risk in comparison to the schools in which 500 million people attend educational institutions, schools, colleges for five to six days every week in classrooms sitting in small and enclosed environments for eight hours. Dr Faisal Sultan said with limited assurance of COVID-19 SOPs the risk of COVID-19 is high.

On the other hand, 125,642 candidates will appear in the MDCAT examinations in 198 scattered but COVID-19 SOPs compliant venues or examination centres in 33 cities for two and half hours for one day only. He concluded that there will be low risk of coronavirus spread.

Pakistan recorded more than 3,000 new coronavirus cases for the second consecutive day during the past 24 hours (Wednesday) as the country continued grappling with the second wave of the pandemic.

According to the data released by the National Command and Operation Centre on Thursday morning, the total number of cases reported in the country has reached 386,198 with the addition of 3,306 new infected people.

On the other hand, the death toll in Pakistan climbed to 7,843 after another 40 people died of Covid-19 during the past 24 hours.

Most of these latest deaths were again reported in Punjab as 19 coronavirus patients died in the provinces. It was followed by eight in Sindh, six in Islamabad, five in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one each in Azad Kashmir and Balochistan.