Maharashtra schools to reopen on Monday

New Delhi : Maharashtra education minister on Thursday announced that the schools in the state will reopen from Monday onwards for all classes. All the schools have been instructed to mandatorily follow Covid protocols, Varsha Gaikwad, Maharashtra School Education Minister.

"From 24 (January) we will be reopening schools for classes 1-12th with COVID protocols; Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has agreed to our proposal, Ms Gaikwad was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Last week, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope had raised demand to reopen the schools in the state. 

"Demands are rising from certain quarters for reopening of schools as children are suffering the education loss," he said.

Earlier this month, Maharashtra government had shut down schools amid rising number of new coronavirus cases till February 15.

"After COVID cases rose, the government decided not to continue with the school (offline) sessions. But after discussion with the experts, it has been decided to start the sessions where the number of cases is low based on the local COVID-19 situation," Ms Gaikwad said.

On Wednesday, Maharashtra officially recorded 43,697 new coronavirus positive cases, 10 per cent more than the previous day, including 214 Omicron infections.