ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has said all educational institutes in the country would resume normal classes from Monday, October 11, as coronavirus infections are on the decline, planning minister Asad Umar said on Thursday.
Pakistan has witnessed a stead fall in COVID-19 cases in the past few weeks, and its positivity rate has dropped to 2.82 percent.
“Based on the reduced level of disease spread and the launch of the school vaccination program, it has been decided in today’s NCOC meeting to allow all educational institutions to start normal classes from Monday the 11th of October,” said Umar, who also heads the National Command and Operations Center (NCOC), which oversees Pakistan’s pandemic response.
The South Asian nation of over 220 million people launched its COVID-19 vaccination campaign in February this year, nearly one year after reporting its first case of the coronavirus. So far, more than 87 million vaccine doses have been administered. Total infections reported stand at 1,255,321, with around 28,000 deaths.
On Wednesday, the NCOC said it has devised a comprehensive plan in collaboration with the National Database and Registration Authority and district administrations to target areas of the country with low vaccine rates.
“By using the information technology, unvaccinated people will be traced and approached to convince them for vaccination,” Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported, quoting the NCOC. “The goal is to ensure that maximum number of people are vaccinated at the earliest.”
The vaccination rate has picked up since July after officials announced penalties for the unvaccinated, including blocked cell phones and barred access to offices, restaurants, shopping malls and transport.
On October 1, the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority announced it would allow only fully vaccinated inbound and outbound passengers to travel to the country by air.