Odisha: Schools, colleges will reopen from February 7. see details here

On Thursday, Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said, “After reviewing the current COVID-19 situation and learning loss of students, the state government has decided to reopen schools and colleges.”

Physical classes for class 8 to 12 students along with colleges, universities and other technical, vocational education institutions will open from February 7,” Mohapatra said.

“However, physical classes for students from KG to class 7 will start from February 14,” he added. Mohapatra further said that in the ongoing academic session, students will have the option to choose between physical classes, online classes and hybrid mode of education.

“The board exams of class 10 and 12 will be conducted as per the guidelines of the respective board and council,” he said.

“In this third wave the hospitalization due to the Omicron variant is less as compared to the second wave, the daily positivity rate has also come down and the situation is coming under control. We vaccinated a large number of children aged 15 to 15 years Has 18 years,” said the chief secretary.

“While physical classes will be conducted strictly following the COVID-19 protocol, all departments concerned with education have been asked to issue detailed SOPs for reopening educational institutions of their departments,” he said.

Meanwhile, Odisha recorded 3,629 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, a five per cent increase over the previous day, pushing the tally to 12,59,405, the health department said in its bulletin. Eighteen patients, including three each in Khurda, Cuttack, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur and Sundergarh, succumbed to the infection, the bulletin said. The toll rose to 8,666. 53 COVID-19 patients have died due to comorbidities in the past. The daily positivity rate was 5.4 percent.