ISLAMABAD: Winter vacation for Pakistani schools has been moved to January, the government announced on Friday as it aims to complete a COVID-19 vaccination campaign at educational institutions.
The special drive at schools to make it easier for children aged 12 and above to be vaccinated started in late September.
The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), Pakistan's central pandemic response body, decided to move the start of winter holidays from late Dec. 25 to Jan. 3.
"This decision has been taken to maximize vaccine uptake amongst students in educational institutions, which can be best achieved when schools are open. Millions of students remain unvaccinated, and data suggest that children may be susceptible to infection," the NCOC said in a statement.
The decision comes as the South Asian nation confirmed its first case of the omicron coronavirus variant earlier this week.
The new strain of the coronavirus was detected in southern Africa last month and has been designated a "variant of concern" by the World Health Organization, as its mutations may lead to higher transmissibility.
"Global trends regarding the spread of the Omicron variant suggest that an upsurge of cases typically happens within few weeks of the detection of the variant," the NCOC said. "It will be prudent to schedule winter vacations in Pakistan in January to coincide with the potential uptick of cases. This will allow for minimal disruption of educational calendars if there is a surge in cases."
Pakistan started its general vaccination campaign in February and has since administered at least one vaccine dose to over 138 million of its 220 million population. So far 26% of its population has been fully vaccinated.
Amid ramped-up immunization efforts, the country's coronavirus positivity rate has dropped significantly in recent months. It was 0.66% as Pakistan logged 277 fresh infections over the past 24 hours.
