Haryana Coronavirus: Schools in Haryana will be closed until November 30 (Representative)
Chandigarh:
Schools in Haryana will remain closed until November 30, the state announced today, as 174 students and 107 teachers tested positive for the deadly coronavirus in just over fifteen days after schools reopened in the state for upper classes.
All the infected students come from public schools in three districts of the state. The schools had reopened after eight months for classes 9-12 on November 2. Nearly 1.58 lakhs of students out of a total of 6 lakhs of the student population attended classes across the state every day.
In an order, the State Education Directorate also said that schools will be periodically sanitized to prevent the spread of the disease and maintain hygiene.
The state follows Maharashtra’s capital Mumbai, which also closed schools today under the jurisdiction of the city’s civic body, through Dec. 31 amid mounting Covid-19 cases. Schools were scheduled to reopen Monday.
The strict measures come on a day when the country crossed the grim milestone of 90 lakh of coronavirus cases. The total number of deaths in the country due to the deadly disease stands at 1,32,162.
Phase III trials of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin coronavirus vaccine also began today in the state with the state’s health minister, Anil Vij, who volunteered to be the first to receive the test vaccine.
Haryana had reported 2,212 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total count in the state to 2,09,251. So far, a total of 1,87,559 patients have been discharged; the death count in the state is 2,113. Haryana has 19,579 active cases.
Schools across the country had been closed for months due to the coronavirus pandemic until recently, when the union government allowed the reopening of schools for the upper classes. However, the center said that the preferred mode of education should be online classes and even if students go to school, they must have written permission from their parents. It was not compulsory to attend physical classes at the school.
Most schools across the county opted for online classes as Covid-19 cases continue to rise across India.
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