Growing pollution in Pakistan's Punjab province has sickened 1.8M people in a month, officials say

LAHORE, Pakistan — Worsening air pollution sickened an estimated 1.8 million people in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province in the past month, health officials said Tuesday, as schools across the province were ordered to close for five days to protect children's health.

Punjab with a population of 127 million has been struggling to combat smog since last month.

''Over 1.8 million people visited hospitals and private clinics in the smog-hit districts in Punjab in the past 30 days, and most of them had been suffering from respiratory-related diseases and burning of eyes,'' said Ahsan Riaz, a spokesman for the health department.

Earlier, officials said that tens of thousands of people were treated at hospitals in recent weeks, but Riaz said Tuesday that the number of people affected by smog is much higher, and hospitals are flooded with such patients.

The closure of schools in the entire province came more than a week after officials shut schools in 18 smog-hit districts there. Toxic smog has shrouded Pakistan's cultural capital of Lahore and 17 other districts in Punjab since October.

It forced the government last week to close all parks and museums for 10 days.

Authorities have urged people to avoid unnecessary travel, as a record wave of smog is causing respiratory-related diseases and eye infections.

The latest developments came a day after the U.N. children's agency warned that the health of 11 million children in Pakistan's Punjab province was in danger because of air pollution that experts say has become a fifth season in recent years.

According to the Environmental Protection Department in Punjab, Multan — a city in the province — remained the most polluted city on Tuesday, with air quality index readings of about 700. Anything over 300 is considered hazardous to health.

Authorities have ordered the mandatory wearing of face masks, but that has been widely disregarded. The government has also said that it is looking into methods to induce artificial rainfall to combat the pollution.