Punjab Education Minister Murad Raas on Friday announced that all public and private schools of the province will be closed from September 6 to 11 due to rising Covid cases.

In a tweet, the provincial minister urged people to stay home for their safety and protect themselves and their families from the pandemic.

The Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference in a meeting decided to reopen educational institutions across the country except Sindh on August 2.

However, the officials in Sindh decided to continue online classes owing to increasing cases of Covid’s Delta variant across the province.

Social media users slammed the announcement by the Punjab minister and expressed disappointment over the decision.

A social media user tweeted the Covid standard operating procedures were being followed in schools and urged the minister to keep the institutions open for the third, fourth and fifth grades.

Some users urged the minister to reconsider the decision of closing the schools.

Meanwhile, a user criticised the decision of the minister, saying “which type of Covid is it which will vanish in five days”.

According to the Punjab health department tweet, at least 1,368 people across the province tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours.

So far Punjab has reported 397,694 confirmed cases of Covid since the pandemic emerged in 2020, while the total death toll of the province is 11,979, according to the National Command and Operation data.

At least 1,000 daily cases of the coronavirus have been recorded across the province from August 20 to September 2. The province reported 1,839 cases on August 30, the highest number of positive cases during the period.