Shafqat Mehmood says meeting to be held on April 6 to decide on school closure

• The decision related to schools' closure will be taken by the authorities at the NCOC meeting on Tuesday.
• Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood says this on Twitter.
• The minister says the meeting will also bring the exam situation under discussion.

The decision related to closure of schools will be taken after a meeting of the health and education ministers at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Tuesday.

This was said in a post on Twitter by Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood.

The minister said that keeping in view the deteriorating coronavirus situation in the country, the NCOC meeting will also discuss the exam situation.

Read more: Coronavirus in Pakistan: Over 5,000 test positive in a single day

"Education and Health Ministers will meet at the NCOC Tuesday to decide whether to open or further close educational institutions. The exam situation will also be discussed," the federal minister wrote.

He added: "Whatever is decided will be a collective decision of the country’s health and education authorities and NCOC."

The country is presently gripped in the third wave of coronavirus which is said to be more contagious and hazardous than the previous cycles.

Over 5,000 people once again tested positive for the coronavirus again over the past 24 hours.

According to NCOC data, 81 people died from the coronavirus, among them, 74 died in hospitals while seven passed away outside of hospitals.

Read more: NCOC issues guidelines to curb coronavirus spread during Ramadan

As many as 5,020 people tested positive for the virus on Saturday, as per the NCOC's data.

The total number of active cases in the country has risen to 60,072 on April 4. Pakistan conducted 55,605 tests on April 3.

A total of 613,058 have so far recovered from the virus while the total number of deaths, with the fresh count of 81 fatalities, have risen to 14,778.