Corona cases drop as Sindh shrines set to reopen today

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD: The Sindh government has issued coronavirus Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for shrines, which are set to reopen across the province from today (June 28).

According to the SOPs, devotees will only be allowed to stay in the shrine for 10 minutes and the entry of people aged above 50, young children or those exhibiting symptoms of illness will be restricted, reported private news channel.

Langars (free meals) will not be distributed, while other standard COVID-19 SOPs such as wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and stringent sanitation measures will also be followed.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has reported 23 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 954,743. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 22,211 on Sunday.

According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 901 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. Punjab remains the worst-hit province in terms of deaths and cases followed by Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Till now 10,721 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab 5,410 in Sindh 4,304 in KP 776 in Islamabad 582 in Azad Kashmir 307 in Balochistan and 111 in GB. Furthermore 345,796 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Punjab 335,555 in Sindh 137,628 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 82,565 in Islamabad, 27,003 in Balochistan, 20,212 in Azad Kashmir and 5,984 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Pakistan has so far conducted 14,416,394 coronavirus tests and 44,544 in the last 24 hours. 900,291 patients have recovered in the country whereas 1,941 patients are in critical condition. Meanwhile, National Command Operation Centre (NCOC) has proposed summer holidays in educational institutes nationwide from July 18 as Punjab province is opposing the decision, it was learnt on Sunday.

According to details the NCOC has proposed summer holidays between July 18 and August 01. However the Punjab government, while opposing the decision, conveyed that it wanted to announce a month-long holiday from July 02 to August 02.

After disagreement from both sides the matter would now be mulled over by the education conference of the NCOC, where provinces will have their say over the matter. The meeting will be convened soon to finalise the decision.

It is pertinent to mention here that the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation (APPSF) on Saturday announced that there would be no summer holidays across the nationwide educational institutes in 2021.

President APPSF Kashif Mirza said that the schools will remain open during the summer holidays and would remain open between 7 00 am to 11 00 am. The students could come to private schools in casual dress rather than in school uniforms, he said, adding that the decision was taken in view of hot weather conditions.