Published On : Thu, Aug 12th, 2021

Study from home to continue: Reopening of schools on August 17 put on hold amid fears third wave of COVID-19 in Maharashtra

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Mumbai/Nagpur: The state government has put on hold its own decision to reopen schools in Maharashtra from August 17, amid the spread of Covid Delta-plus variant and the possibility of the third wave hitting the state.

A government resolution (GR) spelling out the SOPs for reopening the schools for Classes 5 to 7 in rural areas and for Classes 8 to 12 in the urban areas was issued on Tuesday.

However, the state government’s taskforce on paediatrics, headed by Dr Suhas Prabhu, strongly recommended that the reopening of schools be pushed back by a month or even further.

The state taskforce on Covid, chaired by Dr Sanjay Oak, wanted the government to consider reopening of schools only after Diwali (in November).  According to Mumbai newspaper reports who has in their  possession of the report of the state taskforce for paediatrics on the reopening of schools.

The report says: “While we need to see that a child’s education and mental health does not suffer, we have to take precautions and prevent hasty reopening of schools to stop the third wave from worsening. We are conscious of the effects and problems created by the prolonged closure of schools (but) with the third wave likely in a next month or so, it would not be wise to reopen schools right away.”