The Punjab government on Tuesday ordered all private and public educational institutions in Lahore to close down for 10 days as the number of people affected by dengue fever in the province reached 4,327 with 3,952 cases reported in the provincial capital alone.
Punjab Health Secretary Jehanzeb Khan told reporters that 283 new cases were reported during the last 24 hours in the provincial capital. He said Faisalabad was second on the list with 196 dengue cases while Rawalpindi was third with 52 patients diagnosed with the fever, adding that the virus had so far claimed eight lives.
Meanwhile in a notification issued on the directions of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the government ordered all educational institutions in Lahore to close down for 10 days in a bid to fumigate all schools and colleges of the city. Students will have to face a huge academic loss as it was the start of academic year in private schools while some schools were also conducting examinations.
Government school teachers said that earlier they were busy in the polio vaccination campaign and then conducting the census and now dengue would further affect the academic process in the educational institutes of Punjab. Private school associations also criticised the decision saying the holidays would cause irreparable loss, adding that fumigation had already been carried out in all private schools.
However, private schools owner disowned the statements of the so-called associations and said schools would remain closed for 10 days. Teachers and parents showed mixed reaction over the Punjab government’s decision, saying shutting down of schools spoke volumes of the negligence of the Health Department.
Parents claimed that the government was shunning their responsibility and the closure of institutions was not a solution to the problem. Earlier, Dengue Emergency Response Committee Chairman MNA Saad Rafique also directed the owners of private schools to fumigate school buildings twice a week without charging any additional fee from the students.
