Battling second wave of coronavirus, Pakistan to take call on closing educational institutions

Pakistan's education ministers will meet on Monday to take a final decision on whether the country's schools should be closed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed nearly 7,700 lives and infected over 3.7 people.

Pakistan's education ministers will meet on Monday to take a final decision on whether the country's schools should be closed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed nearly 7,700 lives and infected over 3.7 people. Educational institutions in the country reopened on September 15, over six months after they were closed in view of the outbreak of the pandemic.

Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood will chair a meeting of education ministers of all four provinces as well as representatives of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit-Baltistan to decide if schools should be shut to combat the second wave of the pandemic. In a tweet on Sunday, Mahmood had said he would share the decision taken by the participants with the media after the meeting.

"To all those eagerly awaiting the outcome of tomorrow's inter provincial education ministers meeting. I will be holding a press conference at 12.30 after the conclusion of the meeting in which all decisions would be announced," he had said. The proposal to close all educational institutions until the end of January next year and extend the academic year, which ends on March 31, until May 31 is among various others to be considered in the meeting.

It was reported that initially all provinces and regions except Sindh were in favour of closure of schools. But later Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani said he would follow the decision taken at the meeting. Pakistan's coronavirus tally surged to 376,929 on Monday, with 2,756 fresh infections being reported in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of National Health Services.

Thirty-four more fatalities were reported, taking the country's death toll to 7,696, the ministry said. At least 330,885 people have recovered while some 1,677 are in critical condition. The number of active patients stands at 38,348.

Sindh has reported 163,329 cases, Punjab 114,508, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 44,599, Islamabad 27,018, Balochistan 16,810, PoK 6,123 and Gilgit-Baltistan 4,542 cases. So far, Pakistan has conducted 5,216,955 tests, including 36,929 in the last 24 hours. The positivity rate of cases stands at 7.4 per cent, according to the ministry.