Covid-19 rapid spread closes schools

AMID the rapid spread of Covid-19 and Omicron infections, the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday announced the shutting of all schools from Classes 1 to 9 and Class 11.

Classes 10 (SSC – Secondary School Certificate) and 12 (HSC – Higher Secondary School Certificate) will not be closed considering the crucial board exams which are due to start around a month later.

However, BMC commissioner IS Chahal said despite the schools for the other classes remaining, the online classes will continue as in the past for all the students. The move came a few weeks after the BMC and state government took the decision to reopen schools – shut since March 14, 2020, with only online classes permitted – in stages in October and December – as the effects of the first and second waves of the Covid pandemic subsided.

Classes 8 to 12 were allowed to resume from October 4, and on December 15, the remaining Classes 1 to 7 also started functioning off-line, with a majority of the students turning up in schools. With the spread of the third wave now in India, the Education Department discussed the measures, keeping in mind the health and safety aspects, before deciding to close all physical classes from Classes 1 to 9 and Class 11, until January 31.

School authorities rue that many had discontinued full-fledged online classes as students started attending the classes physically in large numbers with full Covid protocols implemented.

Mumbai is the worst-hit in terms of both Covid-19 and its variant Omicron cases in the past couple of weeks.

The Covid cases are jumping up by a few thousand a day in the state which also leads in the Omicron tally with 328 infected so far, though the death rate is low.