COVID-19 in Pakistan; Schools to remain closed for extended time period

Punjab Education Minister Murad Raas on Tuesday said that schools throughout the province may remain closed for an extended time period given the situation of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

According to the details, the minister was speaking at the opening ceremony of the retirement system for teachers of the province where he touched upon the issue of schools being closed throughout the province.

He said that “I want to open schools, but we may have to go with the option of extending the closure of schools, given the current circumstances.”

Raas said that personally he was not in favor of closing schools, “A joint meeting of all education ministers will take place on January 4 where the decision to extend schools closure or not will be taken,” he added.

In addition to this, he said that the Private Schools Act will be sent to the cabinet for approval. The minister said that the legislation will get the government’s nod within three months.

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Furthermore, he added that said that a “Child Education Book” had been launched which met international standards in quality of education.

On the other hand, the Sindh Health Department today confirmed the detection of UK linked new COVID-19 strain in three returnees.

The health department in a Twitter post, informed;

“Samples of 3 UK returnees show a 95% match to the new Corona Virus variant from UK in the first phase of Genotyping.”

Health officials said they took samples of twelve people upon their return from the UK for genotyping, out of which six turned out to be positive while three showed the new strain of the virus in the first phase.

Karachi (29.12.2020): Samples of 3 UK returnees show a 95% match to the new Corona Virus variant from UK in the first phase of Genotyping. #SindhHealth pic.twitter.com/4UUTSMTOQa

— Health and Population Welfare Department, Sindh (@SindhHealthDpt) December 29, 2020