Schools in Maharashtra's Pune city will remain closed for now and will not reopen from November 23 as decided earlier, Mayor Muralidhar Mohol said on Saturday.
The decision on reopening schools in Pune city will be taken after a review meeting on December 13, the mayor said.
Earlier, the schools in the city were set to reopen from Monday, as per the decision by Maharashtra Government. In addition to Pune, schools in Aurangabad and Mumbai will also not re-open.
Meanwhile, Pune mayor Muralidhar Mohol posted a video on Twitter, explaining reasons behind taking the decision. He said that the civic body was prepared for re-opening schools on 23rd November. However, it decided to postpone the date of re-opening schools.
Following are the reasons for not re-opening the city schools:
Increasing COVID-19 cases:
After dropping steadily for over a month, COVID-19 case count has been rising in Pune and the neighbouring twin city of Pimpri Chinchwad from the last few days. Pune reported 443 new coronavirus cases, taking its caseload to 1,66,652 on Saturday.
According to an update by Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Mayor Murlidhar Mohol, the death toll climbed to 4,421 with 4 new fatalities.
A total of 246 patients were discharged during the day, taking the number of active cases to 4,821. As of now, 1,57,410 people were discharged/ recovered. On Saturday, 4,396 tests were conducted taking the total count to 7,85,776.
Second wave prediction:
Several countries in Europe have imposed lockdowns due to second COVID-19 wave. In India, Delhi has been witnessing a major rise in the coronavirus cases. Even for Pune, Centre's panel has predicted a second wave in future.
NOC by parents to re-open schools:
To re-open the schools, No Objection Certificate (NOC) of parents were needed. However, only 5-10 percent parents submitted their NOCs. Thus, considering the safety of students, PMC decided to postpone the date of re-opening the schools.
