Schools in various Punjab cities closed on NCOC decision after COVID surge

LAHORE: Punjab government has announced to shut schools in major cities of the province where COVID positivity ratio has gone beyond six percent as per the guidelines of the National Command Operation Centre (NCOC), ARY NEWS reported on Friday.

Announcing the decision, the provincial education department announced that schools would remain close in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot and Multan, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, and Rahimyar Khan.

The education department said that any decision on re-opening of schools would be made keeping in view the COVID-19 situation in the province.

The decision has been taken as Punjab remains the worst affected province of the country in the recent wave of the COVID-19.

Punjab has reported 54 more deaths from the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours, health department officials said on Thursday.

According to Punjab’s Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, 2,902 new infections were reported across the province during the same period, taking the provincial tally of cases to 279,437.

A total of 28,829 samples were tested, out of which 2,902 turned out to be positive.

Of the new cases, Lahore reported 1,466 infections, Multan 204, Faisalabad 179, Rawalpindi 133, Sargodha 110, and Bahawalpur 103.

2,351 people recuperated from the disease, taking the number of recoveries to 226,380.