Balochistan govt allows to reopen primary schools from tomorrow

QUETTA: The Balochistan government has decided to reopen all the primary schools in the province from September 30.

On a social media website  Twitter, the Balochistan government’s spokesperson Liaquat Shahwani said that the educational activities will be resumed in all the primary schools across the province.

Shahwani further said that the provincial government has decided to resume primary classes in the third phase.

As part of precautionary steps, the provincial government was providing masks and sanitizers to the educational institutions, he added.

The spokesperson directed the schools’ administration to strictly follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs). He further said that the health teams would conduct random COVID-19 testing at the schools.

تعلیمی ادارے کھولنے کےسلسلے کےتیسرے مرحلے کاآغاز۔
کل بلوچستان میں تمام #پرائمری اسکولزکھول دیئےجائینگے۔
12218پرائمری #اسکولز میں کل سےتدریس کا آغازہوجائیگا۔
ماسکز و سینی ٹائزرز فراہم کررہےہیں،#SOPs پر سختی سے عملدرآمد کیا جائیگا،عملدرآمد نہ کرنے والےسٹاف کیخلاف کارروائی کیجائیگی

— Liaquat Shahwani (@LiaquatShahwani) September 29, 2020

Earlier, Liaquat Shahwani had informed that the province would recommend in the upcoming National Command and Operation (NCOC) meeting that the reopening of primary schools be delayed by 15 days in view of rising coronavirus cases.

The statement came as Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood announced that the primary schools in the country would be reopened on September 30.

Shahwani warned the concerned authorities of a rising coronavirus trend in the province, saying that cases in Balochistan had nearly tripled since August. “Almost the same number of cases was reported in September as in May,” he said.

“Data suggests cases are increasing and there is a danger that they will further increase in winter. If the hospital flow increases, we may be heading towards a lockdown,” he warned.

At least 672 new cases of coronavirus have been reported in Pakistan and the total number of active cases has reached 8,702.

According to the National Command and Operations Center, eight people have lost their lives in Corona in the last 24 hours across the country. The death toll from the coronavirus has risen to 6,474 across the country and the total number of cases has reached 311,516.

The number of coronavirus cases in Sindh has reached 136,395. 99,292 cases have been reported in Punjab, 37,726 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 15,177 in Balochistan, 16,532 in Islamabad, 2,663 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and 3,730 in Gilgit.