KARACHI: The provincial government in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province has decided not to close educational institutions despite a surge in coronavirus cases across the province, the Sindh chief minister’s office said on Saturday.
The province, where the omicron strain of the virus is getting increasingly dominant, reported 3,089 new infections in the last 24 hours.
In view of the recent situation, Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah presided over a meeting of the provincial taskforce on the pandemic to discuss the government’s response.
“It was decided in the meeting that schools will remain open and education activities will continue,” CM Shah’s office said in a statement.
The government, however, decided to assess the capacity of all public and private hospitals to accommodate patients.
Only vaccinated people will be allowed to enter markets and commercial centers after showing their vaccination certificate to the management, according to the statement.
The government also decided to expedite its vaccination campaign across the province and ensure strict implementation of virus-related precautionary measures.
“The surge in coronavirus cases is an outcome of not adopting precautionary measures,” CM Shah said, adding they would overcome the ongoing wave of virus infections if the masses cooperated with the government.
On Saturday, Pakistan reported 4,200 new coronavirus infections, its highest caseload since the end of August, as a fifth COVID-19 wave sweeps the country, driven by the highly transmissible omicron strain of the infection.
The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), which oversees Pakistan’s pandemic response, reported 4,286 new COVID-19 cases and four deaths in Pakistan in the past 24 hours as the country’s test positivity rate rose to 8.16 percent from below 1 percent only two weeks ago.
The omicron variant was first detected in southern Africa and Hong Kong in November, with the first known case in Pakistan identified last month in a woman who had no travel history outside the country.
The last time Pakistan reported over 4,200 new cases was on August 25 last year, when 4,467 people tested positive for the virus in a single day.
Pakistan’s Sindh decides not to close schools despite surge in virus cases
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Pakistan’s Sindh decides not to close schools despite surge in virus cases
- Province reported 3,089 new coronavirus infections in last 24 hours
- Chief minister calls the surge an outcome of not taking precautions
Security forces kill four militants in Pakistan’s volatile southwest, military says
- Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by land area bordering Iran and Afghanistan, has long been the site of a low-level insurgency
- The Balochistan government has recently established a threat assessment center to strengthen early warning, prevent ‘terrorism’ incidents
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces gunned down four militants in an intelligence-based operation in the southwestern Balochistan province, the military said on Tuesday.
The operation was conducted in Balochistan’s Kalat district on reports about the presence of militants, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing.
The “Indian-sponsored militants” were killed in an exchange of fire during the operation, while weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the deceased, who remained actively involved in numerous militant activities.
“Sanitization operations are being conducted to eliminate any other Indian-sponsored terrorist found in the area,” the ISPR said in a statement.
There was no immediate response from New Delhi to the statement.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by land area bordering Iran and Afghanistan, has long been the site of a low-level insurgency involving Baloch separatist groups, including the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF).
Pakistan accuses India of supporting these separatist militant groups and describes them as “Fitna Al-Hindustan.” New Delhi denies the allegation.
The government in Balochistan has also established a state-of-the-art threat assessment center to strengthen early warning and prevention against “terrorism” incidents, a senior official said this week.
“Information that was once scattered is now shared and acted upon in time, allowing the state to move from reacting after incidents to preventing them before they occur,” Balochistan Additional Chief Secretary Hamza Shafqaat wrote on X.
The development follows a steep rise in militancy-related deaths in Pakistan in 2025. According to statistics released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) last month, combat-related deaths in 2025 rose 73 percent to 3,387.
These included 2,115 militants, 664 security forces personnel, 580 civilians and 28 members of pro-government peace committees, the think tank said.
