'Education centres will not be closed during smart lockdown in Sindh'

KARACHI: Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani announced on Monday that educational institutions will not be closed during the smart lockdown across the province.

Saeed Ghani, while talking exclusively to ARY News, said that the educational institutions will not be closed after the imposition of smart lockdown. He added that the authorities had taken actions just after the emergence of COVID-19 cases in education centres.

During the second wave of the coronavirus, 141 schools and four colleges had been closed due to COVID-19 cases. However, the government will re-issue instructions to the administrations for strictly following the standard operating procedures (SOPs), said Ghani.

Read: ‘UK COVID-19 variant spreading in Pakistan’s big cities’

The minister warned that the education centre will be immediately sealed even if a single coronavirus case reported from there. He clarified that the Sindh government has not yet taken any decision to shut educational institutions.

Earlier in the day, amidst a rising number of coronavirus cases, the Sindh government notified a string of measures, including limiting business hours and imposing smart lockdowns in Covid-19 hotspots, to halt the spread of the virus.

The Sindh Home Department re-imposed restrictions on the directives of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Covid-19 to combat the third wave of infections.