Winter vacation pushed back to end-January

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) decided on Wednesday that winter vacation in the educational institutions would be observed at the end of January, while the anti-Covid vaccination campaign among the students would continue.

The scheduling of the winter vacation this year is significant in the wake of new coronavirus variant, called Omicron. Though one Omicron case had been confirmed in Karachi yet the other Covid indicators suggest that the pandemic was at a low ebb this winter.

The issue of scheduling the holidays was discussed in the inter-provincial education ministers' meeting, chaired by Federal Minister Shafqat Mahmood, according to sources. The meeting agreed that the vacation should be given in the second or third week of January.

Also read: Pakistan confirms first Omicron case

However, Mahmood said in a tweet that federal and provincial secretaries had agreed that winter holidays would be observed in schools from December 25 to January 5. The sources said the federal minister stopped issuance of notification and suggested to resolve the issue at the ministerial level.

According to Express News, an important meeting of the NCOC, chaired by Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood, decided that winter holidays in educational institutions would be observed at the end of January in the light of the recommendations of all the provinces.

Earlier, Shafqat Mahmood had said that recommendations for holidays had been received from all the provinces in the inter-provincial ministerial education meeting, adding that the meeting agreed on the winter vacation from December 25 to January 5.

Meanwhile, the NCOC, which serves as the nerve centre of the government anti-Covid strategy, said in its daily update of the disease that the national tally of active Covid-19 cases came down to 9, 292 on Wednesday.

Also read: Omicron spreads faster and weakens jabs: WHO

The forum said that 370 more people tested positive for the deadly virus while 10 people died from the disease during the last 24 hours. It added that most of the deaths during last 24 hours occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) followed by Sindh.

At present, the forum said that 743 coronavirus patients were admitted to various Covid-dedicated hospitals across the country. They included 79 patients on ventilators. During the last 24 hours, 44,609 tests were conducted across the country.

The national caseload of the disease, since its outbreak in February 2020, has risen to 1,289,913. According to the NCOC, 1,251,778 people had now fully recovered from the disease. The nationwide death toll stood at 28,843, it added.

(WITH INPUT FROM APP)