The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said on Monday that it would assess the positivity rates of COVID-19 cases in educational institutions before making a decision on whether to keep them open or not.
According to media reports, the NCOC held a special meeting with the provincial education and health minister today in order to decide on COVID restrictions. This would include whether to close or open schools amid rapidly climbing positivity rates.
Previously the NCOC shut down educational institutes in regions with high positivity rates from September 3 to 12, 2021. Educational institutions were shut down in 15 districts of Punjab and eight districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad.
In a statement, the NCOC said that it would decide about the closure of educational institutions based on data of positive cases. It added that it would initiate a testing campaign in educational institutions to gather the data.
It further said the meeting’s participants deliberated on a new set of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI). The statement said that the NPIs would be implemented by the provinces within the next 48 hours.
A total of 4,340 cases have been reported in the last 24 hours bringing the tally at 1,328,487. The national positivity ratio stands at 8.7 percent.
