Schools in Kerala will reopen on November 1, after a one-and-a-half-year interval, even as the southern state reported 19,325 fresh coronavirus infections on Saturday.
All schools have been asked to make necessary arrangements. Offline classes for standards 1 to 7 (primary section) and 10 and 12 will begin on November 1, while they will reopen for other classes on November 15.
The decision was taken at the core committee meeting on the pandemic chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.
Earlier in the day, the state government also announced colleges in the state will reopen from October 4.
Higher Education Department Joint Secretary Sajukumar, in an order, said classes for the final semesters of degree and post-graduate courses will be started, strictly adhering to coronavirus health protocols.
The final year PG courses will be held with full attendance while it would be 50 per cent for final year degree courses, the order said.
Kerala on Saturday saw a dip in fresh COVID-19 cases as 19,352 infections, and 143 deaths were reported today. With that, the total affected in the state to 44,88,840 and the toll to 23,439.
For more than three months, the state remained the pandemic capital of the country reporting around 70 per cent of the total cases registered.
The number of recoveries outnumbered fresh cases with 27,266 being cured, taking the total number to 42,83,963. Active cases stood at 1,80,842.
