— Daily caseload highest since August
— School closures off the table for now, NCOC decides
— Punjab opposes closure of educational institutions
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan confirmed 4,340 new cases of Covid-19 over the past 24 hours, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Monday, taking the contagion rate to 8.7 percent.
The daily caseload climbed above 4,000 on Wednesday for the first time since August 25 as the fifth wave driven in part by the latest Omicron variant of the pandemic picked up speed.
The authorities did not break down the cases by Covid-19 variant. The nation confirmed its first known case of the Omicron variant in early December.
Meanwhile, the number of active cases jumped past 35,000 for the first time since October 15, when Pakistan recorded 26,974 cases, NCOC data showed.
The NCOC said the health authorities have conducted 24 million tests so far, confirming 1.32 million cases since March 2020.
Over the past 24 hours, 302 patients recovered from Covid-19, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1.26 million, while seven more people were killed by the disease, which increased the death toll to 29,019, according to the body.
Sindh is the most affected province of the country in terms of the number of cases with 502,500 infections, followed by Punjab which has reported 453,392 cases.
The positivity rate in Karachi climbed down to 30.83 percent after reaching a record 39 percent a day earlier. It reported 2,356 cases on Sunday.
SCHOOL CLOSURES DELAYED
Meanwhile, the NCOC, which had called a meeting today to decide on the closure of educational institutions nationwide amid the soaring infections, did not announce returns to remote learning, saying it will first look at the data of positivity rate in various institutions.
The meeting of the provincial health and education ministers was convened to take decisions on coronavirus restrictions, including schools’ closure.
“Decision about education institutions will be taken on data of positive cases of various institutions for which massive testing in educational institutions is being carried out,” the body said in a brief statement issued after the meeting.
Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, who also heads the body, and NCOC National Coordinator Maj Gen Zafar Iqbal chaired the session, while Minister of State for National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan attended it virtually.
Provincial ministers, who joined via video link, told the meeting about the steps being taken for the implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), and health guidelines.
PUNJAB MINISTER OPPOSES SHUTTING SCHOOLS
Meanwhile, Punjab Minister for Health Dr Yasmin Rashid, who does not favour the closure of educations institutions, said: “We don’t want the schools shut since education has already suffered enough.”
The Punjab government has vaccinated 80 percent of students in schools and colleges, the minister told Geo News over the weekend.
Meanwhile, provincial Minister for Education Murad Raas asserted the main reason behind the spread of coronavirus cases were public gatherings since across the province were “rigorously following” government-devised health guidelines.
Ahead of the Monday meeting of the NCOC, he said the Punjab government has recommended reducing the attendance to 50 percent in age groups under 12.
A 2020 report in The Lancet, an independent, international general medical journal, said school closures are likely to have a relatively small impact on the spread of Covid-19 and should be weighed against their profound economic and social consequences, particularly for the most vulnerable children.
