Elementary schools in Assam to reopen from January 1 in staggered manner, says Himanta Biswa Sarma

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Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said that elementary schools in the state will reopen from January 1, 2021, in a staggered manner. Addressing a presser, the minister said detailed SOPs (Standard Operating Procedure) on the development will soon be released.

Earlier this month, the state government allowed students of Class 6 and above can attend school, but only after consent from their parents. Schools were following an odd-even system to minimise the risk of spreading the infection.

The education department decided that students of classes 6, 7, 9 and 12 will have classroom teachings on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of every week while those of classes 8, 10 and 11 will come to school on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Assam reported one more fatality due to COVID-19 on Sunday, pushing the death toll to 981. The coronavirus tally in the state rose to 2,12,617 with 134 fresh cases, he said. The current death rate in the state has been constant at 0.46 per cent during the month, which included five days when no fatalities were reported.

The new cases were detected out of 11,558 tests, at a positivity rate of 1.15 per cent.

The total number of tests conducted in the state so far is 52,91,506, which includes both Rapid Antigen and RT-PCR tests.