Covid-19 vaccination declared mandatory for students aged 12, above

Islamabad: The National Institute of Health (NIH) has declared Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for students aged 12 years and above on Tuesday, cited GNN sources.

According to the sources, the non-vaccinated students have to show medical exemption certificates. The NIH has also decided to start massive coronavirus testing at educational institutions across the country, adding that the campaign will continue for two weeks.

“The arrangements to launch a large-scale countrywide COVID-19 testing drive at educational institutions to stem the spread of new Omicron Covid variant cases,” it added. 

The sources mentioned that the health ministry decided to close educational institutions for one week reporting the highest Covid-19 positivity ratio.

The development comes after coronavirus cases increased in educational institutions.

Earlier, Islamabad administration had closed two colleges after emerging coronavirus cases. As per details garnered, positive cases of COVID-19 had been reported in two colleges of the federal capital. In this regard, the Islamabad district health officer (DHO) had informed the Deputy Commissioner in a letter.

In the letter to the deputy commissioner (DC), the DHO had informed that six cases of COVID-19 have been reported in two colleges. The DHO said that three Corona cases had been reported in IMCG G-6/1, while three Corona cases have also come to light in IMCG F-6/2. 

Following to the coronavirus cases, the district health officer directed to close the two colleges immediately till the next order and spray disinfectant.

The letter said that the federal administration should conduct contact tracing and testing in both the colleges, while the tests should also be conducted of close relatives to the infected female students.

On the other hand, Pakistan has witnessed an enormous spike in its daily tally of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) after as many as 5,034 new infections were logged in the last 24 hours, according to morning update by ministry of health.

Pakistan’s COVID positivity rate now stands at 9.45%. While, the cumulative tally of the country has now climbed to 1,333,521. 

As the fifth wave of COVID-19 intensifies in Pakistan reported 5,034 new coronavirus infections, a new daily record, with authorities linking the spike with the Omicron variant of virus.  

According to the latest figures issued by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), 5,034 persons were tested positive while 7 died in the past 24 hours— taking Pakistan's COVID death toll to 29,029.   

As many as 1,263,791 patients have recovered from the disease. 

Punjab
The number of patients swelled to 453,392 in the province with 13,088 causalities.

Sindh
The number of infections has surged to 502,500 in the province, while the death toll has reached 7,694.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
The confirmed cases have surged to 182,311 in the province with 5,958 casualties.

Balochistan
There are 33,705 confirmed cases while 367 patients have died from the infection so far.

AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan
There are 34,758 coronavirus cases in the AJK while the death toll has reached 749. On the other hand, there are 10,445 cases in GB with 187 coronavirus deaths.

Islamabad
There are 111,376 cases in the capital city while 969 people have lost their lives.