Karachi school suspends in-person classes amid Omicron threat

KARACHI: A private school in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal has shut down its primary section amid a sharp rise in the Omicron cases in the port city, ARY News reported.

According to the circular released for parents by the school administration, the students of the primary section will take online classes, while students of 6th to 8th grades will be called in to the school in groups.

The move has been taken to ensure the safety of the students of the primary section of the school, the administration said.

On Sunday, Sindh health authorities had decided to collect samples for coronavirus tests from schools.

Sindh Health Department has dispatched a circular to all District Health Officers (DHOs) in this respect.

The health officials would collect 100 samples from the schools of each district that will be sent to the Corona Lab of the Dow Hospital for corona tests.

The health department will submit the results of these tests to Sindh Corona Task Force. A decision of keeping the schools open or closed will be taken on the basis of the positivity ratio of corona cases.

Pakistan reports 4,340 new COVID cases

Pakistan has reported 4,340 fresh cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, pushing the countrywide tally of cases to 1,328,487.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), a total of 49,809 samples were tested, out of which 4,340 turned out to be positive, showing the positivity rate of 8.71 per cent as compared to yesterday’s 7.8 per cent.