FILE
The Odisha government has decided to reopen schools for Classes 9 to 12 post Diwali, a TOI report stated. The Naveen Patnaik-led government said that while the academic institutions will continue to remain closed, the school and mass education department will soon release an SOP for classes 9-12, the report mentioned.
The higher education institutions will be premitted to open only for research scholars and post-graduates in Science and Technology stream requiring laboratory and experimental work.
While removing the blanket ban on visitors to places of worship, the Odisha government left it to the district administrations to decide on allowing devotees to temples, mosques and churches in their jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, Odisha's COVID-19 caseload on Saturday mounted to 2,90,116 after 1,470 persons tested positive, while 12 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 1,320. Of the fresh infections detected in all the 30 districts, 853 were reported from different quarantine centres, the remaining being local contact cases.
Khurda district registered the highest number of fresh cases (170), followed by Cuttack (126) and Sundergarh (112).
