Islamabad (Staff Report/Agencies): Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood said that on-campus classes for students for grade 1 to 8, in most affected districts by COVID-19, will remain suspended till April 28.
Talking to the media after holding a National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) meeting on Tuesday, Shafqat Mehmood said classes from 1 to 8 can take place online but there will be no physical presence during the sessions. The minister further maintained that classes from 9 to 12 will continue to take place as usual, with strict adherence to the precautionary SOPs.
However, the board exams for classes 9, 10 and 11 will be held from the third week of May. Meanwhile, Cambridge exams will be held as per schedule.
The meeting was attended by all the education and health ministers.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 696,184 on Tuesday after 3,953 new coronavirus cases surfaced in the country during the last 24 hours.
Overall 266,926 cases were confirmed in Sindh, 235,569 in Punjab, 93,033 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19,855 in Balochistan, 62,211 in Islamabad 5,061 in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and 13,529 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
According to the government's COVID-19 portal, the death toll related to coronavirus has reached to 14,924 with 103 fatalities reported during the last 24 hours.
Over the last twenty four hours, total number of recovered COVID-19 patients across the country reached 618,158 after another 2,198 virus recoveries were reported.
