LAHORE: The Punjab government on Tuesday extended the closure of educational institutions up to the higher secondary level across the province to tackle the hazardous smog situation prevalent for the past few weeks.

The provincial capital recorded the highest air quality index (AQI)in the world, surpassing major global cities such as New Delhi and Kinshasa. At its peak on Tuesday, Lahore`s AQI reached an alarming 1,153, while Multan also reported a dangerously high AQI of 935 between lam and 2am.

Several areas in Lahore are particularly affected, with Fida Hussain House recording an astonishing AQI of 2,009.

Other areas such as Pakistan Engineering Services (Pvt) Ltd. (AQI 1,382) and CERP Office (AQI 1,085) also faced hazardous air conditions. The situation is widespread, with AQI levels in several parts of the city remaining dangerously high throughout the day.

The Punjab Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) issued a notification [available with Dawn] states that `all the educational institutions up to higher secondary level shall remain closed and will shift to online mode with effect from Nov 13 within DG Khan, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal, Sargodha and Rawalpindi divisions till Nov 17.

Punjab Minister for School Education Rana Sikandar Hayat also announced the closure of schools during a press conference, saying that the decision was made in light of the complaints received from the districts. `This drastic decision had to be taken to protect children from the deadly effects. There is a sense of educational loss, but the decision to close educational institutions is being taken out of compulsion. In view of the difficulties in online teaching, an alternative strategy is being quiclcly brought in,` the minister said.

He also appealed to the public to cooperate and do what was in their capacity to help the government deal with this issue.

The smog has severely impacted the healthcare system as hospitals across Punjab report a significant surge inpatients suffering from respiratory diseases. The daily average of respiratory disease cases in the past 25 days stood at 5,179.67, with asthma-related cases averaging 175.92 and conjunctivitis 30.92 per day, revealed by a data sheet of primary and secondary healthcare department available with Dawn.

Nishtar Hospital Multan pulmonologist Dr Nasir Javed told Dawn that asthmatics and chronic smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were at larger risk and were coming to hospitals with exacerbation of their diseases.

He said that AQI is directly proportional to the symptoms/severity which one can suffer and limited activity outside and hydration was the mainstay of avoidingrespiratoryissues.

He said the antibiotics were of no use to treat respiratory medical issues and patients should avoid using them.

He said that asthmatic patients, who were earlier stable, entered into chronic health conditions due to smog and the number of patients visiting outdoorsincreased.Meanwhile, all government offices were ordered to shift half of their workforce to online mode to reduce traffic load on roads to prevent the worsening of the smog situation due to vehicular emissions. `The physical presence of human resource(s) of offices in your jurisdiction may kindly be reduced to 50pc by shifting them to online mode/ work from home,` reads the EPA separate notification.

The EPA directed all the administrative secretaries, as well as heads of attached departments and semi-government/autonomous bodies, to reduce the physical presence of human resources by 50pc.

According to the notification, the situation is likely to prevail for a few weeks, adding that local pollution contributing factors, especially vehicular emissions, may further exacerbate the conditions.

The EPA also called for inter-departmental meetings to be convened in an online mode unless the physical presence of participants was `extremely necessary.