Pakistan on Thursday has reported 2,258 new cases and 53 COVID-19 related deaths in the last 24 hours.

According to statistics shared by National Command and Operations Center (NCOC), the country's nerve center for unified efforts against coronavirus, 42,164 coronavirus tests were taken, 2,258 new confirmed cases were registered, and 53 deaths were reported countrywide in the last 24 hours.

There are currently 1,688 critical patients of COVID-19 admitted at different hospitals in the country.

With these latest statistics, the country's total number of confirmed cases stands at 597,497. Pakistan has so far recorded 13,377 coronavirus-related deaths, and a total of 566,493 patients have recovered from the novel disease.

The country has so far conducted 9360202 coronavirus tests countrywide.

According to the statistics shared by the Ministery of National Health Service, the current positivity rate is 5.3%.

Education minister announces closure of schools in Punjab, Islamabad:

Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood on Wednesday announced that schools in several cities of Punjab and capital territory will be closed after a spike in the coronavirus cases was reported.

While speaking to media after a meeting at the National Command and Operations (NCOC), the country's nerve center for unified efforts against coronavirus, the federal minister said the educational institutes would be closed from Monday for two weeks.

The meeting was chaired by the Minister for planning and development Asad Umar and attended by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, ministers from all provinces and territories of Azad and Jammu Kashmir, and Gilgit Baltistan. During the meeting, in the wake of the increasing positivity ratio, the following decisions were taken:

• Strict compliance of mask-wearing will continue across the board.
• Smart lockdowns / micro smart lockdowns will continue to be imposed based on the disease prevalence/hotspots.
• 50% work from the home policy will be implemented at the discretion of federating units. However, it will be enforced in Islamabad with immediate effect.
• The time limit of 10:00 pm on all commercial activities will be re-enforced with immediate effect, less essential services.
• An earlier decision of allowing indoor weddings, indoor dining, and opening of cinemas and shrines with effect from 15th March 21 has been withdrawn. However, outdoor dining/takeaway will continue to remain open as per previous practice.
• Outdoor gatherings will continue to remain limited to a maximum of 300 individuals with strict enforcement of COVID -19 SOPs.
• The above-mentioned decisions regarding NPIs are base-line decisions. Federating units are at liberty to impose stricter NPIs in selected Cities / Districts keeping in view the local disease trend/spread.