LAHORE: Punjab Education Minister Murad Rass announced on Friday that the summer vacations for schools in Punjab will last two to three weeks. The announcement came while the minister talked to the media in Lahore.
Murad Rass further informed that the vaccination of teachers and staff has been started. There are 16,000 teachers and 4,000 non-teaching staff in Lahore who will be vaccinated.
He said that schools will reopen on June 7 and all teachers will be vaccinated before June.
Context
All public and private schools in Okara, Jhang, Khanewal, and Bhakkar had been closed since April due to a rise in COVID-19 cases. The closure of schools in these districts came after a similar move closed down schools in 13 other districts in Punjab.
Earlier the 13 districts where classes had been suspended were: Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sheikupura, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot, Multan, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, and Dera Ghazi Khan. The decision was taken in light of the higher positivity rate and number of cases in these districts.
The Punjab education minister had announced earlier this month that students of 1-8 grades will continue online classes until Eid. Exams for O and A Level students will continue as scheduled, he added.
Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood, in a press briefing after the meeting, announced that educational institutions will resume studies for grades 9-12 from April 19 and exams will be held in May.
Third Wave
In the last 24 hours, Pakistan reported 2,482 new COVID-19 infections while 67 people lost their lives, according to the latest statistics released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). In addition to this, 4,132 patients are in critical condition in the country.
The positivity ratio was recorded at 4.8 per cent across the country.
Till now, Pakistan has recorded 20,532 deaths. Punjab is on top of the list with 9,925 casualties followed by Sindh: 4,988; KP: 4,025; Islamabad: 753; Balochistan: 273; GB: 107 and AJK: 532.
Since the start of the pandemic, Sindh has reported 314,158 cases, Punjab: 337,775; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa:131,411, Islamabad: 80,927; Balochistan: 24,908; Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK): 19,060 and Gilgit Baltistan: 5,545.
A total of 908,576 cases have been detected so far in the country with AJK reporting 18,940; Balochistan: 24,733; GB: 5,516; ICT: 80,662, KP: 130,644; Punjab:336,315 and Sindh: 311,766.
Pakistan has so far conducted 13,057,951 coronavirus tests and 51,625 in the last 24 hours. 834,566 coronavirus patients have recovered in the country whereas 4,132 patients are in critical condition.
Pakistan opens registration for citizens aged 19 and above
On Wednesday, NCOC chief Asad Umar said the government has decided to vaccinate all citizens aged 19 and above in line with the recommendations of the healthcare authorities.
According to the planning minister, the registration will start from Thursday. Umar said that “now registration will be open for the entire national population which is approved by health experts for COVID-19 vaccination”.
