Lahore/Quetta/Karachi/Peshawar (Staff Report/Agencies): The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 488,529 on Monday after 1,895 new coronavirus cases surfaced in the country during the last 24 hours.
Overall, 218,597 cases were confirmed in Sindh, 140,714 in Punjab, 59,484 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 18,247 in Balochistan, 38,263 in Islamabad, 4,867 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 8,357 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
According to the government's COVID-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached to 10,350 with 39 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours.
Over the last twenty four hours, total number of recovered COVID-19 patients across the country reached 442,457 after another 1,797 virus recoveries were reported.
Meanwhile, the government has announced reopening of educational institutions in three phases from January 18.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting of education ministers, Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said that classes for grade 9 to 12 would be allowed to resume from January 18.
“In the second phase of the reopening of schools, students of primary classes till grade 8 will start going to schools from January 25,” the minister said.
Shafqat Mahmood added that in the third and last phase, universities and other higher educational institutions will reopen from February 1.
He said that teachers and administrative staff would be allowed to come back to schools from Jan 11 after the winter vacations were over.
“Online learning can also be resumed from January” 11, Shafqat said.
The education minister announced that board exams have been postponed till May and June as students did not have enough time to prepare for their exams.
Shafqat Mahmood said that another meeting will be held on January 14-15 by the education ministers to review the health situation in the country.
The reiterated that the decisions had been taken after consulting all provinces.
It is pertinent to mention that the global coronavirus cases have reportedly surpassed 85 million and death toll tops 1.8 million.
