Punjab mulls slashing attendance to 50pc for students under 12 years: Murad Raas

LAHORE – Punjab Education Minister Murad Raas has cleared the air about the closing of schools in the country’s most populated province amid Covid resurgence.

Speaking in a presser at Wahdat Road Quaid-e-Azam Academy for Education Development, Raas said classes for children under 12 years will be continued with 50 percent attendance, while masks and Covid vaccines will be pre-requisite for all students to attend the in person classes.

Sharing the official stats, he said around 85 percent of children in schools have been vaccinated while almost 100 percent of teachers are fully inoculated against the novel virus.

He said the decision was taken in the NCOC meeting attended by Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid and PM’s aide on health Dr Faisal Sultan.

Last week, Raas shared a tweet in which he responded to the rumours about schools closure amid an alarming rise in Covid. “For all the inquirers whether Schools are closing or not? In my opinion, every other activity especially social activity has to be stopped before schools. Schools should be the absolute last in line to close, he wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s top pandemic response body is holding an important meeting to consider stern restrictions relating to the Covid pandemic.

In its meeting on Saturday, the NCOC discussed the disease prevalence and non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) over spike in infections in the country, especially in major cities.

The South Asian country reported over 4,000 new infections for the third consecutive day on Monday. As 4,340 people tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the overall positivity rate to 8.71 percent in the country.