Pakistan's Punjab declared a health emergency due to toxic smog on Friday, banning construction, shutting schools for another week and moving universities online, with a three-day lockdown possible, the province's senior minister said on Friday.

The government of Pakistan’s most polluted province has launched a new policy to address a protracted smog crisis, after the world’s worst air shuttered schools and saw 900 people seek hospital treatment in a single day.

Pakistan's most populated province of Punjab on Friday extended school closures in smog-hit major cities by a week, as the country battles record