ISLAMABAD: The decision pertaining to closure of schools in the country will be taken after a meeting of health and education ministers at National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Tuesday. This was stated by Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood in a post on Twitter on Sunday.

He said that keeping in view the deteriorating coronavirus situation in the country, the NCOC meeting will also discuss the exam situation.

“Education and Health Ministers will meet at NCOC Tuesday to decide whether to open or further close educational institutions. The exam situation will also be discussed,” he tweeted.

“Whatever is decided will be a collective decision of the country’s health and education authorities and NCOC,” he added.

The country is presently gripped in the third wave of coronavirus which is said to be more contagious and hazardous than the previous cycles. Over 5,000 people once again tested positive for the coronavirus again over the past 24 hours.

According to NCOC data, 81 people died from the coronavirus, among them, 74 died in hospitals while seven passed away outside of hospitals. As many as 5,020 people tested positive for the virus on Saturday, as per the NCOC’s data.

The total number of active cases in the country has risen to 60,072 on April 4. Pakistan conducted 55,605 tests on April 3. A total of 613,058 have so far recovered from the virus while the total number of deaths with the fresh count of 81 fatalities, have risen to 14,778.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021