No winter vacations in Sindh schools this year: Saeed Ghani

Provincial Education Minister Saeed Ghani on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of winter vacations in Sindh this year.

The provincial minister said students have been given more holidays than usual this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

"Therefore, there's no question of winter vacations right now," he said. 

He added that a final decision on the matter will be taken during a National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) meeting scheduled for late November.

Ghani’s statement comes a day after Federal Minister of Education Shafqat Mahmood convened a special meeting of education ministers to decide on an NCOC recommendation to announce early and extended winter vacations.

Since there was no consensus, a decision on the matter was deferred till next week.

The Balochistan government, however, has announced early winter vacations today. The provincial education minister said winter vacations will start from December and the new education year will begin three months later, in March.

Read more: Coronavirus cases in Pakistan and abroad on November 17

Rising spread

The coronavirus claimed 33 lives across Pakistan in the past 24 hours, according to data issued by the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) on Tuesday.

The country's COVID-19 death toll stands at 7,193 — with the last 193 deaths being reported in just eight days.

The NCOC data shows Pakistan recorded 14,606 new coronavirus cases in the past seven days, bringing the total tally to 361,082 today with 2,050 new cases. The number of active cases stands at 29,055.

The case positivity rate also shot up to 7% this week. The recovery rate is steady at 90% as a total of 324,834 COVID-19 have survived the virus.

Wear a mask, says PM Imran Khan

Addressing the nation after a meeting of the National Coordination Committee on COVID-19 on Monday, PM Imran Khan urged the public to wear masks, observe social distancing, and follow coronavirus SOPs.

PM Imran Khan said the NCC had decided to ban public gatherings of more than 300 people including political rallies and weddings. Only outdoor weddings are allowed.

The authorities have allowed indoor dining for now but encouraged masses to order in or take away instead.

All of this will be reviewed next week.