ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood on Wednesday announced a two-week spring holiday for education institutions in several cities in Punjab province as well as in Peshawar and Islamabad where there has been a significant increase in the number of coronavirus cases in recent weeks.

Addressing a news conference after attending a meeting at the National Command and Operations Center to review the COVID-19 situation in the country, he said that the disease was largely under control in the southern provinces of Sindh and Balochistan.

However, Mahmood said all education facilities in Peshawar, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Gujrat, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Lahore and Multan would take a spring break from March 15 to March 28.

He said all provincial administrations would continue to monitor the situation and take appropriate decisions during this period.

The minister noted that students preparing for major exams would follow their usual routine, adding that all learning centers in areas where the COVID-19 positivity rate was still low would observe 50 percent attendance and strictly follow safety protocols to prevent the spread of the disease.

“Educational Institutions in Sindh and Balochistan would continue with 50% attendance every day,” he said in one of his Twitter posts.

The minister added that “decision regarding Muzaffarabad will be taken by AJK Government.”

The announcement was made after Pakistan’s federal and provincial education ministers held a meeting to review last month’s decision to restart regular classes at schools across the country amid a surge in coronavirus infections.

Last month, Pakistan announced it would ease a number of virus-related restrictions, including lifting time limits on commercial activities, allowing indoor dining at restaurants from March 15 and restarting regular five-day classes at schools from March 1.

But a possible “third wave” of the pandemic led officials to reconsider school openings, local media reported.

“The virus is not the same as it was in November and December but we have seen a rise in cases over the week,” the federal education minister was quoted as saying by local Samaa TV.

The government also withdrew its permission for indoor wedding and dining from March 15 due to the rising rate of infection.

It decided to re-impose the time limit of 10pm for all commercial activities and shut down all amusement parks at 6pm.

Pakistan’s health chief Dr. Faisal Sultan said during the news briefing that authorities would once again review the situation on April 12.

Pakistan began its vaccination campaign to immunize frontline health workers last month after receiving 500,000 doses of the SinoPharm vaccine from China.

While the inoculation drive was not carried out at a rapid pace, the government intends to spread the program to the rest of the population as well.

Pakistan reported its first coronavirus case in the last week of February 2020. Ever since, it has recorded 595,239 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 13,324 deaths. The country conducted about 39,500 coronavirus tests in the last 24 hours, reporting 1,786 new cases of infection and 43 more deaths.