Region
Manipur to shut schools over rise in COVID-19 cases
Our Correspondent
Imphal, July 12 (EMN): In view of the rise of COVID-19 cases over the past few days, the government of Manipur has decided to shut schools in the state till July 24.
The Commissioner of Education department, H Gyan Prakash, announced this in an order on Tuesday.
As per the order, all the government and government-aided schools that are currently closed for summer vacation since June 20, are supposed to reopen on July 16 but the educational institutions will remain closed for nine more days over the recent increase in COVID cases and test positivity rate crossing 15%.
‘At the same time, children below 12 years of age are yet to be vaccinated, thus increasing their vulnerability to get infected by COVID-19 significantly,’ it stated.
Therefore, in view of the development, the state government has ordered all the schools (government/government-aided/private schools/schools affiliated to CBSE) in the state shall be closed for conduct of classes with immediate effect and shall remain closed till July 24, 2022 in public interest, it added.
The Chief Minister of Manipur, N Biren Singh, also tweeted: “With the increasing number of COVID-19 positive cases in the state in the past few days, the Government of Manipur has directed all schools of the state to remain closed till the 24th of this month.”
On Tuesday, 59 people were tested positive for the virus, registering a single day positivity rate of 15.6 per cent, according official reports.
With this figure, the number of active cases in the state has increased to 216, out of which 173 are in home isolation. The number of recovered cases in Manipur as on Tuesday is 1,35,207 and the recovery rate stands at 98.30 per cent. The overall caseload in Manipur is 1,37,543 and the cumulative death toll stands at 2,120.
As per the latest update from the Health department, 29,87,155 doses of vaccine — 15,98,827 first dose, 12,67,469 second dose and 1,20,859 precautionary dose — have been administered in Manipur.