Schools with high COVID positivity to be closed for one week: NCOC

• "Education institutions, premises, sections, specific classes with high positivity to be closed for ONE week," NCOC says.
• Says COVID testing in education institutes was carried out in major Omicron hit cities to ascertain disease spread among students.
• A spokesperson for the Sindh Education Department says NCOC notification has not been received yet.
  

All schools with a high COVID-19 positivity ratio will remain closed for one week across the country, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced on Friday.

According to a notification issued in this regard, the NCOC said: "Education institutions, premises, sections, specific classes with high positivity to be closed for ONE week."

The notification further added that provincial administration, in consultation with district health, education authorities, and school administrations, are to set a threshold of cases for deciding such closures.

The NCOC added that COVID testing in education institutes was carried out in major Omicron hit cities to ascertain disease spread among students and ensure accurate disease mapping.

Therefore, keeping in view the results, the NCOC has taken the following decisions:

• Aggressive testing in education institutes for next two weeks especially in high disease prevalence cities.

• Federating units to carry out special vaccination drives in schools to ensure 100% vaccination of students over 12 years of age.

Schools in Sindh to remain open 

Responding to the NCOC's announcement, a spokesperson for the Sindh Education Department has said that the Sindh Home Department has not received the notification yet. 

The spokesman added that a decision related to schools' closure will be made once the notification is officially received.

He said that as per the old decision, schools in Sindh will remain open until the reception of the notification.

Pakistan records highest number of daily COVID-19 cases

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan registered its highest number of daily COVID-19 cases — 7,678 — in the last 24 hours, up from 6,808, the second-highest daily toll, since the pandemic started in 2020, official figures showed Friday morning.

With the new infections, the overall cases have moved past 1.35 million. Meanwhile, as many as 59,343 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, and the positivity ratio shot up to 12.93%.