The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday allowed re-opening of schools for classes 9th to 12th from 1st September with COVID-19 protocols. However, teachers and other staff need to be fully vaccinated before joining their respective schools.
The state government was supposed to take a 'final' decision to reopen schools for classes nine to 12 by August 20, however the decision has been taken by the govt two days prior.
The minister's office in a statement today had said that a final decision on the reopening of higher classes would be taken by Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin, and by Friday the government would announce whether the classes would open from September 1 or not. The Chief Minister has also asked the state Health Minister to take feedback from all the district collectors and the district medical officers before a final decision is announced.
"The state health department has its own views regarding the reopening of schools and we are providing proper data regarding the pandemic. Based on our inputs, as well as the feedback from the district collectors and district health officers, the Chief Minister would take a decision on the reopening of schools for students of higher classes," state Health Minister Ma Subramanian told IANS.
Health department sources told IANS that the department has provided all the inputs regarding the pandemic, including the possibility of the spread, if schools are reopened and other micro-level details regarding the disease and its spread.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu on Tuesday recorded 1,804 new COVID-19 cases pushing the caseload to 25,92,436 on a day when the total number of samples tested by the health department breached the four crore mark in the state.
The death toll rose to 34,579 with the addition of 32 new fatalities, a government bulletin said. Recoveries outnumbered new infections with 1,917 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 25,37,632 leaving 20,225 active infections.
(With agency inputs)
