Schools reopen for class 6 to 8

LAHORE:Public and private schools across Punjab reopen today in the second phase to conduct on-campus classes for grade-6 to grade-8.

As per instructions issued by School Education Department (SED) Punjab all public and private schools shall divide the students into two equal groups (class wise), Group A and Group B. Each group will attend the school on selected days only, the students of Group A shall attend school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday while Group B shall attend school on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

It is pertinent to mention here that in the first phase public and private schools reopened for Class-9 to Class-12 on September. In the third and last phase the schools would be allowed to conduct on-campus classes for grade-1 to grade-5 from September 30.

COVID-19 cases in schools: Punjab School Education Minister Dr Murad Raas has said so far over 50 cases of Covid-19 have been detected in schools of four districts Gujranwala, Gujrat, Faisalabad and Nankana Sahib. Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Dr Murad said that any school with even a single confirmed case would be sealed and would not be reopened until complete satisfactory report afterwards.

The minister said that so far health department conducted 25,000 random tests in schools across the province. He said there were over 120,000 public and private schools in the province and efforts were being made that all the schools follow SOPs developed by the government.

He criticised the recent APC by opposition and termed it ‘Chor Party Conference’ (CPC). He said 90 percent talk of the former PM Nawaz Sharif was against the state. He said these elements were alleging corruption of billions whereas the entire project was worth Rs 410 million.

One patient dies: One patient died from Covid-19 and 59 new infections have been confirmed in Punjab during the last 24 hours, according to a report issued by Primary and Secondary Healthcare (P&SH) Department on Tuesday.

The toll of fatalities raised to 2,227 in Punjab, while confirmed cases of novel coronavirus reached 98,487 in the province.

Out of a total of 98,487 infections in Punjab, as many as 95,707 citizens contracted the virus through local transmission. The remaining 2,780 Covid-19 infections were confirmed among members of Tableeghi Jamaat, Zaireen returning from Iran and prisoners. As per spokesperson of Corona Monitoring Room at Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department, as many as 12,534 tests have been conducted in the last 24 hours, which raised the total number of tests to 1,162,846 in the province.

After 2,227 fatalities and recovery of a total of 94,971 patients, as many as 1,289 active cases still remain, who are either isolated at homes or under treatment at different quarantine centres and health facilities.