Covid: Manipur decides not to conduct physical classes for children below 12 yrs

The Manipur government has decided to close schools up to Class VII till August 7 after a reassessment of the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the state.

With a rise in Covid-19 positive cases in Manipur, the authorities in the northeastern state have decided not to conduct physical classes for children below 12 years of age (i.e up to Class VII) till August 7 as a precautionary measure for their health and safety, said a government order issued on Friday.

Children below 12 years of age are more vulnerable to get infected by Covid-19 as they are yet to get vaccinated, (Representative Image)

The order issued by the commissioner (education), H Gyan Prakash, came after the state government re-assessed the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the state. Children below 12 years of age are more vulnerable to get infected by Covid-19 as they are yet to get vaccinated.

“All Schools (Government/ Government Aided/Private/affiliated to CBSE, etc) located in the State shall not conduct physical classes for children below twelve years of age i.e. upto Class VII and the school shall remain closed for these students till 07.08.2022 in public interest,” the order said.

“Covid Appropriate Behaviour, Covid-19 SoP(Standard Operating Procedure) and Guidelines issued by the Government from time to time shall be strictly observed by all concerned while conducting physical classes for Classes VIII and above which are allowed to be re-opened from July 25,2022,” it added.

In a government order issued on July 12 this year, all the government and government aided schools, which were scheduled to reopen on July 16 after they were closed for summer vacation from June 20, 2022 to July 15,2022, were ordered to remain closed till July 24 following the rise in Covid-19 positive cases in the state.

According to the State Covid-19 Common Control Room reports issued on Friday, 79 people tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours and registered a single day positivity rate of 8.4%.

With this figure, the number of active cases has increased to 644.Of them, 453 are in home isolation.The number of recovered cases in Manipur as on Tuesday is 1,35,621.The recovery rate is 98%. The overall caseload in Manipur is 1,38,389.Though no new deaths have been reported,the cumulative death toll since the virus hit the state stands at 2,124.

As per the latest update of the health department on vaccination, 30,50,919 doses including 16,06,824 first doses, 12,28,032 second doses and 1,66,063 precautionary doses have been administered in Manipur.

The first Covid 19 positive case in Manipur was reported on March 24,2020 while the first death case due to the pandemic was reported on July 29 the same year.