Murad Raas notifies new restrictions in Lahore schools

LAHORE: The Punjab government Wednesday notified implementation of the new restrictions in Lahore schools as per the guidelines set by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

The NCOC had earlier said that cities with over 10% positivity ratio will undergo a fresh set of curbs.

Punjab Education Minister Murad Raas announced that the new curbs would be imposed in all the private and public schools of the metropolis.

“In all Public & Private Schools, classes up to Grade 6 will be staggered (50% students each day) starting tomorrow January 20th through January 31st, 2022,” the minister tweeted.

He said that classes 7 through 12 will remain on the previous schedule and urged everyone to follow COVID SOPs.

According to the latest NCOC data, Lahore is among seven major cities with a higher disease prevalence. City reported 15.15% positivity ratio today.

New COVID-19 restrictions

The NCOC has decided that classes for students under 12 years will continue in a "staggered" manner in affected cities.

For fully-vaccinated students above 12 years, classes will be conducted daily.

In the new SOPs, the NCOC said federating units, in consultations with health authorities, will set a number of cases or infection rate as a benchmark, through which they will decide on the closure of schools.

With effect from February 1, at least one dose for students above 12 years will be mandatory across Pakistan and no exemption other than medical reasons will be entertained, the NCOC guidelines stated.

"Aggressive sentinel testing in educational institutions will be carried out for targeted closures in high disease prevalence education institutes," the NCOC said.