Odisha withholds decision to reopen schools for Classes 1 to 5 amid COVID-19 spike

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Bhubaneswar: Amid a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, the Odisha government on Sunday said that it was withholding its decision to reopen schools for students of Classes 1 to 5 from Monday. School and Mass Education Minister S R Dash, in a statement, said 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 stated.

Dash, however, maintained that physical classes for students of classes 6 to 10 will continue for now. He also said that offline examination, as scheduled earlier, will be conducted adhering to COVID-19 protocols.

Odisha on Sunday reported 424 new COVID-19 infections, the highest single-day tally in over two months, which pushed the caseload to 10,55,556, the health department said in its bulletin. The toll rose to 8,463 as a 75-year-old woman from Bhubaneswar succumbed to the virus in the Khurda district. Fifty-three other COVID-19 patients have died due to comorbidities in the past, the bulletin said.

Khurda, where Bhubaneswar is located, reported the maximum number of new cases at 177, followed by Cuttack at 45. Sixty-seven children are among those newly afflicted with the disease. Odisha currently has 2,078 active cases, while 10,44,962 people have recovered, 59 of them in the past 24 hours, the department said.

With 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 on Sunday, with Maharashtra and Delhi continuing to be the worst-hit, according to the Union Health Ministry. Of the total patients, 560 people have been discharged from hospitals.

Among the total 23 states and UTs that have reported the Omicron variant so far, Maharashtra tops the list with 460 cases. Of them, 180 patients have been discharged, according to Ministry data. Meanwhile, Delhi has the second-highest Omicron cases at 351, followed by Gujarat (136), Tamil Nadu (117) and Kerala (109). The states that have reported double-digit Omicron cases are Rajasthan (69), Telangana (67), Karnataka (64), Haryana (63), West Bengal (20), Andhra Pradesh (17), Odisha (14).

Single-digit case numbers were recorded in Madhya Pradesh (nine); Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand (eight each); Chandigarh and Jammu and Kashmir (three each); Andaman and Nicobar Islands (two); Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Manipur and Punjab (one case each).