West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that schools can be reopened for primary classes on alternate days if other COVID variants don't hit the state.
The CM's statement comes a day after the World Health Organisastion (WHO) warned that the Omicron will not be the last one and the possibility of other new variants is really high.
"If other COVID variants don't hit West Bengal, then we can think of reopening schools for primary classes on alternate days," CM Mamata Banerjee was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Schools for classes 8 to 12 in West Bengal had reopened in the state from 3rd February. The relaxation in Covid-19 curbs and reopen schools, colleges was announced as the Covid-19 pandemic situation improved in the state.
“Colleges and universities will also restart their offline classes from Feb 3,” CM Banerjee had said.
The WHO COVID-19 Technical Lead Maria Van Kerkhove yesterday said that the global health agency is tracking four different versions of Omicron.
"We know a lot about this virus, but we don't know everything. And quite frankly, the variants are the wild card. So we are tracking this virus in real time as it mutates as it changes.But this virus has a lot of room to move," she said.
"Omicron is the latest variant of concern. It will not be the last variant of concern that WHO will speak about. The next one, you know, that will come hopefully, it will take some time to get there. But with the level of intensity of spread, the possibility that we will have other variants is really high," she said.
Meanwhile, West Bengal's Covid-19 tally rose to 20,08,133 on Wednesday after 884 new infections, 148 more than the previous day's count, were registered, the health department said in its bulletin. It said that 28 new fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 20,912. On Tuesday, the state had recorded 736 new cases and 32 more deaths.
