Haze: All Putrajaya, Klang schools closed

All schools in Putrajaya and Klang are closed today following the critical haze situation which reached the Air Pollution Index (API) reading of 200.

Selangor and Perak have also closed 214 and 288 schools, respectively this morning.

The Education Ministry announced the closure in its Facebook page at 5am today.

It had announced the closure of the schools in Selangor at 5am as the API reading reached 200 by midnight, where 99 schools in Petaling Perdana, Kuala Selangor, Gombak, and Petaling Utama were ordered closed on top of 115 schools closed since yesterday.

Checks on the API of Malaysia website as of 7am showed that the critical readings in Selangor and Putrajaya have yet to subside.

This was followed by the closure announcement of schools in Putrajaya and Klang at 6am.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that 265 schools in the districts of Manjung, Bagan Datuk, Hilir Perak and Perak Tengah are closed, on top of 23 schools closed in Perak since yesterday.

As of 7am today, areas which recorded the "very unhealthy" API readings were Johan Setia (253), Shah Alam (219), Nilai (211), Balik Pulau (204), Klang (202), Petaling Jaya (202), Putrajaya (202).

The API at Sri Aman went down from hazardous (397) at 9pm yesterday to very unhealthy (244) as of 7am.

Air quality worsened marginally in Langkawi which went from good to moderate.

An API reading of zero to 50 indicates good air quality; 51 to 100, moderate; 101 to 200, unhealthy; 201 to 300, very unhealthy and 300 and above, hazardous.

- Mkini