On Friday, the Odisha government on Friday has announced to restart the physical classes for students of 8th and 11th standards from October 21 as the state is witnessing a declining trend in Covid-19 cases. The state has already resumed classroom teaching for students of classes 9 and 12 with strict adherence to safety guidelines.
"The Covid-19 situation has been improving in the state. We will resume classroom teaching for students of classes 8 and 11 from October 21. A notification will be issued soon", said the School and Mass Education Minister S R Dash. "No decision has been taken for reopening of schools for students from class 1 to class 7", he added.
Schools remained closed from October 9 on the occasion of Durga Puja and Kumar Purnima and will be reopening on October 21. However, on Thursday, Odisha has logged 521 fresh Covid-19 cases which is 94 less than the previous day, taking the state's caseload to 10,33,809, with 6 fresh fatalities the death toll has been pushed to 8,274.