Jammu Tawi, April 04: Jammu and Kashmir administration on Sunday announced closure of all schools from Monday due to surging cases of Covid-19. While primary classes up to class 9 will remain closed for two weeks; classes 10 to 12 will be shut down for a week till April 11.
“In view of rising trend in Covid-19 cases in Jammu and Kashmir and the likelihood of young children getting infected and transmitting infection in large numbers, all classes up to and including Class 9 in schools will be closed for 2 weeks in all schools beginning on Monday,” office of the lieutenant governor (LG), Manoj Sinha informed in a tweet.
The schools were earlier reopened by March 01, 2021 in a staggered manner, a year after they were first closed owing to Covid pandemic in March 2020.
The decision comes after at least, 90 students from various Kashmir schools including 33 students from a government higher secondary school in Budgam district, 36 from a private school in Kulgam district and 14 in a government school in Anantnag district were found infected with coronavirus along with a handful of teachers and staff during random testing drives in schools over the past 4-5 days.
At-least 10 schools were ordered to close in the past few days owing to detection of infection among students and staff during random testing drives. Concerned parents were requesting the government to close all the schools to safeguard children's health.
The government said classes 10, 11 & 12 will also be closed for one week in the entire Jammu and Kashmir.
“Further, all gatherings for social and customary functions will be restricted to 200 only and after following due Covid SOPs (standard operating procedure),” it said.
Earlier this year, the schools were reopened for students of 9th to 12th classes from March 1 and from March 8 for 6th to 8th classes. The government also allowed opening of primary schools after March 15.
Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday recorded 501 Coronavirus disease cases taking the total case tally in the Union Territory to 1,32,439. The death toll reached 2,005 with two fresh fatalities in Jammu division.
For the past two days, the UT has reported over 500 daily cases, the highest daily count in almost four months.
In the month of March, 4,519 Coronavirus infections were recorded in the UT, an increase of 133% from February. In February there were 1,935 cases and 21 deaths. 37 deaths were recorded in March.
Most of the schools had cut attendance by half by dividing students, who were asked to visit on alternate days to maintain Covid protocols such as social distancing. Some schools were also running two shifts in a day to reduce the class strength by half.
