Telangana schools to remain closed from Jan 8 to 16 amid rise in Covid-19 cases

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has announced holidays for all educational institutions during a health review meeting. The decision to close the schools comes amid a spike in Covid-19 cases in Telangana on Monday.

Hyderabad:Schools in Telangana will remain closed from January 8 to 16 as the Chief Minister of the state K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday announced holidays for all educational institutions during a health review meeting.

The decision to close the schools comes amid a spike in Covid-19 cases in Telangana on Monday. The state recorded 482 cases on Monday as compared to 274 on Sunday. The 400-mark was breached for the first time after two months. The Omicron tally in the state remains at 84.

Schools in Telangana opened on September 1 however given the rise in Covid-19 cases and the additional threat of Omicron, the administration is compelled to close them again. Schools in Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, West Bengal, Goa, and Delhi have also been shut as the country is seeing a fresh wave of the infection.

On Monday morning, India reported 33,750 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours, highest since September 17, 2021. Omicron cases also shot up to 1,700 spreading to 23 states with Maharashtra being the worst-affected with 510 cases, followed by Delhi with 351.

Covid-19 cases saw a meteoric 181 percent rise in the last week. From December 27-January 2, India recorded nearly 1.3 lakh new cases, a 12-week high, compared to the previous week’s tally of 46,073.The numbers are worrying as the nation saw the highest weekly increase in infections since the pandemic began. The previous most-significant rise in weekly infections was from April 5 to 11 last year when the country saw around 71% increase in infections.