Punjab closes schools again amid rising virus cases

The provincial government has decided to close schools again from Monday for six days due to the worsening situation of coronavirus, Punjab Education Minister Murad Raas announced on Twitter Friday.

"All Public & Private Schools of Punjab to be closed from September 6th to September 11th, 2021 due to COVID 19 conditions," the minister tweeted. Murad Raas urged everyone to adhere to COVID-19 SOPs. "Please stay home and stay safe. Protect yourself and your families," he wrote.

The educational institutes in Punjab were opened in August following summer vacations after the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) okayed the resumption of in-person classes.

According to the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, 1,368 cases were detected today after 22,549 tests were conducted.

The number of active cases in Punjab stands at 24,650, with a 6.1% positivity ratio while Lahore reported a positivity rate of 9%, Rawalpindi 9.9%, Multan 3.4%, Faisalabad 5.5% and Jhang 22.9%.

Pakistan's COVID-19 graph has been showing a declining trend as the country has mostly been recording less than 4,000 daily infections all of this week.

The South Asian country registered 3,787 more coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours after 59,745 tests were taken, taking the cumulative caseload to 1,171,578, the National Command and Operation Centre's data showed Friday. The number of active coronavirus cases, too, have been declining for the last three days. The active cases fell to 90,076 Friday. The positivity rate was recorded at 6.33%.

With 57 more deaths, the death toll crossed the 26,000 mark and now stands at 26,035, according to the NCOC stats. The country's daily recoveries continue to outnumber the daily new cases. Over 6,595 recoveries in the last 24 hours took the number of Pakistan's cumulative recoveries to 1,055,467. Pakistan is reporting 3,911 new infections on average each day, 67% of the peak - the highest daily average reported on June 17.

The country has administered at least 58,156,714 doses of COVID vaccines so far. Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that's enough to have vaccinated about 13.4% of the country's population.

During the last week reported, Pakistan averaged about 1,019,949 doses administered each day.

At that rate, it will take a further 43 days to administer enough doses for another 10% of the population.