TED NewsDesk, Mumbai: The Maharashtra education department has asked the district authorities to take a call over the shutting of schools in Maharashtra from 1 March given a rise in Covid-19 cases among students. Varsha Gaikwad School and Education Minister said it was up to the local authorities to decide whether to keep schools open given the rise in Covid 19 cases in their areas.
“In rural Maharashtra, primary schools were recently allowed to start classes. Since in the last few days Covid 19 cases are surging, the local authorities should take the call of shutting the schools keeping the safety of the students and teachers as a top priority. Wherever the cases are rising, the authorities should disinfect those premises,” Gaikwad told the media.
Additionally, Maharashtra school education minister Varsha Gaikwad Dispelled the rumors that Amid the high rise in Covid-19 caseload the 10th and 12th board exams will be canceled. She said, that the Std 10th and 12th board examinations will be held in the state.
She denied reports that the Std 10th examination has been canceled due to the surge in coronavirus cases in the state.
Meanwhile, 325 students were detected Covid positive on Wednesday at Latur’s MIDC boys’ hostel and 229 students from Washim district tested positive on Thursday. Many teachers and students have been Kept in isolation. This surge has impacted the upcoming Budget session as well. The ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi government has curtailed the session to March 1 to 10 against the earlier schedule of March 1 to 28. The budget will be presented by Finance Minister Ajit Pawar on March 8.
The opposition has criticized this move saying that the Uddhav Thackeray government is using the Covid situation as an excuse to curtail the session as it is not interested in discussing public issues.
The overall infection rate in the state was pushed to 21,29,821 as the state reported over 8,000 cases for the second consecutive day.
Mumbai city reported 1,145 cases on Thursday, which took its cumulative figure to 3,22,844. Five persons died due to the infection in the metropolis, which pushed the toll to 11,463. With 864 new cases, Nagpur ranked second in the state in terms of daily cases.