Covid-19 in Odisha : Government withholds decision to reopen schools for Classes 1 to 5

Due to the sharp rise in Covid cases, the Odisha government informed that they will be withholding their decision t reopen schools for students of Classes 1 to 5 from January 3.

According to the reports, School and Mass Education Minister S R Dash stated that the decision was taken after officials visited various primary schools across the state and held discussions with the stakeholders. “Keeping in view the rise in the number of daily cases and based on the feedback provided by parents across the state, we have decided not to reopen schools for students of Classes 1 to 5 from January 3,” he said.

He further stated that that physical classes for students of classes 6 to 10 will continue for now and the offline examination, as scheduled earlier, will be conducted adhering to COVID-19 protocols.

Odisha on January 2 reported 424 new COVID-19 infections, the highest single-day tally in over two months leading to the total caseload to 10,55,556. Khurda, where Bhubaneswar is located, reported the maximum number of new cases at 177, followed by Cuttack at 45.  Odisha currently has 2,078 active cases, while 10,44,962 people have recovered, 59 of them in the past 24 hours. Further 94 new Omicron cases detected in the last 24 hours, the overall number of infections caused by the new highly-transmissible Covid-19 variant rose to 1,525.