Murad Raas says 'no decision' taken yet on Punjab schools' closure

• Punjab considers cutting down attendance to 50% for students under 12 years.
• Majority of students have been vaccinated against COVID, Murad Raas says.
• Raas terms public gathering as main reason behind rise in coronavirus cases.

LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Education Murad Raas said Monday no decision had been made yet on closing schools and other educational institutions in the province.

The education minister, addressing an event, noted that the main reason behind the spread of coronavirus were public gatherings, as he stated that COVID-19 SOPs were being followed in schools.

Raas said the government has recommended cutting down the attendance to 50% of students who are under 12 years old. He highlighted that a majority of students had already been inoculated.

His comments come as a meeting of the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) has been called today to decide the fate of schools and other restrictions in the country.

'Punjab doesn't want schools to shut down'

Punjab health minister Yasmin Rashid has also said that the provincial government does not favour the closure of schools.

"We don't want the schools shut since education has already suffered enough,” Rashid said earlier today while speaking on Geo News programme "Geo Pakistan".

She said that Punjab has vaccinated 80% of its students in schools and colleges.

COVID situation

The federal and provincial governments have started mulling over restrictions as coronavirus cases are increasing across the country due to the Omicron variant.

Pakistan's active coronavirus cases jumped past 35,000 for the first time since October 15, 2021, when the country recorded 26,974 cases, the NCOC's data showed Monday morning.

As many as 4,340 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours after 49,809 tests were taken. The active case count stood at 35,884.

This is the third consecutive day of Pakistan recording COVID-19 cases over the 4,000-mark, which is the highest daily tally since August 25 last year.