ISLAMABAD: The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Saturday announced all educational institutions will remain closed until May 23 to rein in the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
A meeting to review the decision would be held on May 18 and the decision to reopen the institutions would be taken after taking into account the pandemic situation at the time, it said.
In March, the government had closed down all educational institutions in several major cities and Islamabad initially for two weeks but later extended until April 11 after a surge in Covid-19 cases there.
Last month, a meeting of the NCOC on Tuesday decided to keep in-person classes for students in grades one to eight suspended until April 28 in Covid-19 hotspots.
“In view of ongoing disease trends, education institutes earlier closed till 17th May will continue to remain closed till 23rd May 21,” said the statement.
FIRST BATCH OF COVAX JABS ARRIVE:
Earlier in the day, it also confirmed the arrival of 10 million doses of coronavirus vaccines procured under the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) facility, an initiative backed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that aims to ensure equitable provision of vaccines.
The body, through a statement, urged people especially those 60 and above to get inoculated on priority. It underscored that people in the said age group were the most vulnerable to the contagion disease.
To date, some 10.19 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines comprising Sinopharm, Sinovac, and CanSino were received by the government.
It further informed that 1.23 million doses of AstraZeneca were also received in Islamabad. However, this vaccine was procured through the Covax programme, it said.
The body announced one million doses of Sinovac will arrive on Sunday, a second consignment of one million shots between May 13-15, and another 1.5 million doses were expected by the end of May.
The government launched a nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive for the general public, starting with older people, in March. The drive began with a focus on the oldest people in the community, generally over the age of 80.
Battling a third wave of the virus, the government began the vaccination of people aged 50 and above on April 21, and for 40 and above on Monday with China’s Sinopharm and CanSino jabs.
Private hospitals in major cities are also using Russia’s Sputnik-V vaccine that has been imported by a local pharmaceutical company.
Islamabad has also approved the emergency use of AstraZeneca and China’s CoronaVac vaccines, but both are yet to be used in the country.
The government is aiming to ramp up the immunisation campaign in the summer and expects to receive 13.2 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of June.
According to Minister of State for Health Dr Faisal Sultan, the government has so far placed orders for 30 million doses with different companies.
He had last month announced that by the end of June, the government would have a stock of 17 million vaccine jabs but stopped short of identifying the developer.
