Our Correspondent
Islamabad
Pakistan has reported more than 752 Coronavirus cases for the first time in more than a month. The last time the country recorded more than 700 cases was on August 12 when 711 cases were reported over 24 hours.
On the other hand, nine new deaths were reported in Pakistan from the coronavirus in the last 24 hours taking the nationwide death toll to 6,408.
According to the national dashboard, there are 2,472 cases in AJK, 13,991 in Balochistan, 3,381 in GB, 16,033 in Islamabad, 37,242 in KP, 98,142 in Punjab and 133,125 cases in Sindh.
Meanwhile, thirteen educational institutions were closed down across the country in the last 24 hours for flouting health guidelines and standard operating procedures laid down by the government to prevent Covid-19 from spreading, a statement by the National Command and Operations Centre said on Friday.
According to the statement, 10 educational institutions were shut down in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while three were closed in Sindh for “non-compliance of health guidelines and protocols and disease prevalence”.classes,” he announced.
Ghani said the classes that were slated to resume on Monday (Sept 21) will be pushed back to Sept 28, if the situation concerning the virus improves. “But if the situation remains the same, we might review the decision on Sept 28 again.”
Like other provinces,
schools in Sindh were set to be reopened this month in phases after six months of closure due to the pandemic. In the first phase, classes nine and above were allowed to return to schools on Sept 15. Classes 6-8 were scheduled to resume on Sept 21 while primary and pre-primary classes were to resume on Sept 28.
Ghani said the objective behind the phase-wise approach was to not send all children back to school at once so that there was a smaller number of students in schools at a time. “And so that we would have a practical experience regarding the extent of implementation of the SOPs formulated,” he added.
But he said he observed violations of health guidelines and government rules regarding resumption of classes during his surprise visits to schools in various areas of Karachi. Shortly after his news conference, Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood in a tweet said there was “no change regarding the time table announced earlier” after the inter-provincial meeting of education ministers. “We will meet in the NCOC on 22nd to decide finally but if the current trend remains, [there is] no reason to postpone 6 to 8 [classes] opening on 23rd September,” he wrote.
Covid-19 infections appear to be on the rise in the country. Pakistan on Thursday reported more than 700 cases for the first time in more than a month while Sindh’s daily tally of infections rose above 300 earlier this week for the first time in three weeks.
As many as 13,000 teaching and non-teaching staff of educational institutions across Sindh have been tested for the novel coronavirus. Of all the staff who have taken a Covid-19 test, results of 25,00 have come out, the provincial education department said, adding 88 of them were found to have contracted the virus, which is about 2.5 per cent of the total staff undergoing the test.
