KARACHI: The provincial task force on coronavirus in its meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah here at CM House on Monday decided to open schools from class VI to VIII with 50 per cent attendance from today (Tuesday) while businesses would only remain closed on Sunday.

Relevant ministers and other officials attended the meeting.

The meeting was told that the overall detection ratio in the province has come down to 4.5 per cent. The weekly report showed that Karachi had 9.5pc cases and Hyderabad 5.65pc.

Karachi East has 12pc cases, South nine per cent, West eight per cent, and Central seven per cent.

It was pointed out that in June alone 192 Covid patients died. In May 392 patients lost their lives.

The chief minister said that the detection ratio has started coming down and hopefully it would further drop if the SOPs were followed in true letter and spirit.

On the recommendation of the task force members, the chief minister decided to open schools from class-VI upwards from Tuesday. He also decided that primary classes would be opened from June 21 if the Covid situation improved further.

The chief minister said that the NCOC had decided that instead of two-day Covid-related closure of business activities now only one day, Sunday, would be observed. The task force would meet again on Saturday to review the situation and make decisions accordingly.

The health secretary told the meeting that out of 3,035,998 doses received so far 2,466,458 had been utilized.

At this the chief minister directed the health department to further expand vaccination drives.

Taking notice of the news of selling vaccination certificates at Expo Centre by a private person, he ordered the provincial police chief to arrest the culprit and make him an example for others.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2021