Pune schools to resume physical classes from February 1: Maha Dy CM Ajit Pawar

New Delhi: Schools and colleges in Maharashtra’s Pune will reopen for physical classes from February, announced Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday (January 29).

As per the latest order, school timings for classes 1 to 8 would be half of its regular timings while classes above 9 standards will operate as per usual timings.

Parents' consent required

Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar said that the consent of parents would be mandatory for sending their children to school for classes 1-8.

“Consent from parents will be required to attend the school. The further decision for classes 1 to 8 will be taken in the next meeting,” said Pawar.

The decision comes as for the first time in nearly five months, Maharashtra recorded a massive spike in Covid-19 deaths and Omicron cases crossed the 3,000-mark

Maharashta Covid numbers

Maharashtra on Saturday recorded a spurt in new COVID-19 cases at 3,900, including 85 of Omicron, with the daily count rising by 1,728 from a day before, the state health department said even as Health minister Rajesh Tope expressed concern over the spiralling number and termed it as alarming.

The state recorded 20 fresh deaths, taking the number of fatalities to 1,41,496, the health department said in a bulletin. It said 1,306 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours, taking the number of recovered cases to 65,06,137. The coronavirus recovery rate in the state is 97.61 per cent, it said.