Covid-19: All Mumbai schools to remain closed till 15 Jan, announces BMC

Mumbai's civic body on Tuesday announced that all schools in the city will remain closed till 15 January amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Earlier, the civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had ordered schools to not reopen until December 31 due to the pandemic. The Maharashtra government had earlier allowed Classes 9 to 12 to reopen from November 23.

Albeit the coronavirus cases in the city and the state of Maharashtra are decreasing for the past few weeks, the authorities have made the decision to keep schools shut for this year.

At the beginning of the last month, Maharashtra School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad had said that the permission to re-open schools in Mumbai and other nearby regions will be taken only after consultation with the state public health department.

The minister had also said that the examinations of Class X and XII conducted by the state board will not be held before May 2021 instead of February or March due to the prevailing coronavirus situation.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra's coronavirus caseload rose to 19,25,066 on Tuesday as it recorded 3,018 new cases, a health official said here.

With 69 patients dying, the death toll in the state reached 49,373, he said.

On the other hand, 5,572 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, taking the tally of recovered persons to 18,20,021.

There are now 54,537 active cases.

Mumbai city reported 537 new cases during the day, which pushed its case count to 2,92,008, while the death toll in the state capital rose to 11,094 with six new fatalities.

With 56,982 new samples tested, the number of coronavirus tests conducted in Maharashtra went up to 1,26,00,754.