Parliamentary Secretary on Health Dr. Nausheen Hamid says that National Command and Operation Centre was working on a strategy to keep check on public gatherings which she said were the major reasons for the spread of the virus
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-Jan 18th, 2022) The Federal government is deliberating over closure of schools for children under the age of 12 years, Parliamentary Secretary on Health Dr Nausheen Hamid said on Tuesday.
Nausheen Hamid said that the government did not have plan on closing schools where children above 12 years, staff and teachers were vaccinated. She expressed these words while talking to a local private tv.
Dr. Hamid said National Command and Operation Centre was working on a strategy to keep check on public gatherings which she said were the major reasons for the spread of the virus. It would be formulated in a day or two, she added.
She categorically said that there was no need of imposing complete lockdown in the court, pointing out that restrictions would be imposed where the positively ratio was high.
Coronavirus's positivity ratio reached 9.45% in the last 24 hours after Pakistan reported 5,034 new cases.
The NCOC data showed that wedding were one of the major reasons behind the spread of coronavirus and the government would "definitely" have to ban indoor weddings in high positivity ratio areas.
Dr. Nausheen said that NCOC might allow weddings in open halls with few restrictions but currently, they were gathering data and working on it.
On Monday, NCOC did not make a decision to shut down educational institutions, saying that the positivity rates of various institutions will be checked first.
The parents are worried for the safety of their children from the lethal virus which is sharply increasing by every passing day across the country.
A meeting of the provincial health and education ministers was held to decide the fate of the schools amid increase of COVID-19 inflections.
In a statement, NCOC said, “Decision about education institutions will be taken on data of positive cases of various institutions for which massive testing in education institutions is being carried out,”.
Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special initiatives Asad Umar and National Coordinator Maj Gen Muhammad Zafar Iqbal chaired the NCOC meeting while Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan attended the session online. All the provincial health and education ministers took part online in the meeting and informed the centre about steps being taken to contain COVID-19.
The participants discussed the global and regional trends of Omicron variant.
The centre said that restrictions would be enforced in letter and spirit to spread the virus, pointing out that the provinces might take their own decisions.
