Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday advocated reopening of schools in the national capital, saying that a generation of children will be left behind if do not open schools now.
The Delhi Disaster management Authority (DDMA) has called a meeting on Thursday to deliberate on easing Covid-related restrictions in the city in view of the improved situation. The issue of reopening schools is also on the agenda.
The Delhi Deputy CM's comments came following a meeting with delegation of parents led by Chandrakant Lahariya, an epidemiologist and public policy specialist.
"A delegation of parents of Delhi's children led by @DrLahariya, @AiyarYamini submitted a memorandum to me signed by more than 1600 parents for reopening of schools. Why we are the last among major countries to decide on this?," Sisodia wrote on Twitter.
"I agree with their demands. We closed school when it was not safe for children but excessive caution is now harming our children. A generation of children will be left behind if we do not open our schools now," added Sisodia, who is also Delhi's Education Minister.
After being briefly reopened, schools in the national capital were again closed on 28 December last year in view of the third wave of coronavirus driven by the Omicron variant.
Meanwhile, the number of active Covid-19 cases in Delhi has halved in just 12 days after rising to a high of 94,160 on January 13, while it took 21 days for the active caseload to drop by half during the second wave last year.
The third wave of the pandemic saw the active cases peaking to 94,160 on January 13. The number dropped to 42,010 by Tuesday.
During the ferocious second wave last year, active cases had risen to a high of 99,752 on April 28 and the number reduced to 45,047 by May 19.
Experts said the decline in cases is in line with their expectations.
"It was expected. The rise was very rapid. The R naught value -- which indicates the spread of Covid-19 -- was around 4, which means a person would infect the entire family within two days.
With agency inputs
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