Schools to reopen with 50% capacity

128 NEW COVID CASES, ONE DEATH

21/09/2021

JAMMU, Sep 20: After remaining closed for months to prevent the spread of coronavirus, various schools reopened on Monday for students of classes 10 and 12 across Jammu in accordance with the fresh government guidelines, officials said.
However, they said the attendance in both private and government schools for the two classes was low but expected to pick up in the coming days.
All educational institutions, including universities and colleges, were closed for offline classes on April 18 to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Many higher education institutions have started functioning for vaccinated students early this month.
According to the latest Covid containment guidelines issued by State Executive Committee (SEC) chairperson and Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta on Sunday evening, the government allowed schools to reopen for classes 10 and 12 for in-person teaching with certain conditions, including permission from the deputy commissioner concerned and strict adherence of Covid-appropriate behaviour.
The regular classes for 12th standard were permitted in the educational institutions with limited in-person teaching not exceeding 50 per cent on a given day for vaccinated students and staff. Likewise, limited in-person teaching of class 10 students, not exceeding 50 per cent on any given day, was permitted by the deputy commissioner concerned after ensuring compliance with Covid-appropriate behaviour by the school management.
"However, the classes will be run after due screening through 100 per cent Rapid Antigen Test or RT-PCR which will also be subject to consent of parents and students," the order read.
The principal of Shiksha Niketan Higher Secondary School, Rameshwar Mengi, said 20 per cent of the nearly 3,000 enrolled students of classes 10 and 12 attended school on the first day.
"We have received consent from parents of 60 per cent students and are hopeful that the student attendance will pick up in the coming days," he told PTI.
However, he said the majority of class 12 students have not been vaccinated since they are just 17 years of age.
"We raised the issue with the Jammu deputy commissioner, who permitted us to admit the students for offline classes after 100 per cent RT-PCR tests, he said.
He said only those students who have a negative COVID-19 report were allowed to enter the school premises after proper screening and hand sanitisation.
"All the classrooms have already been sanitised and proper seating arrangements have been made in each class to maintain social distance, he said.
Kunal Singh, a class 10 student, said he is happy to return to the school after a long gap.
"Online is no alternative to offline classes. We will try to utilise the opportunity to clear our doubts and prepare ourselves for the final examination, Singh said.
Another student, Taaniya thanked the school administration for making necessary arrangements to ensure safety of the students.
"My parents were concerned about my safety but they will heave a sigh of relief when I will brief them about the strict adherence of Covid-appropriate behaviour by the management, she said, expressing hope that they would complete their syllabus without any further breaks.
The SEC has also reiterated reopening of coaching centres for Civil Services or Engineering or NEET with limited in-person teaching but only for fully vaccinated staff and students.
All other coaching centres, along with schools for the rest of the classes, will continue to remain closed for in-person teaching, the order said.
Meanwhile, the administration has doubled the cap on gatherings from 25 to 50 at banquet halls subject to certain conditions and also cut night curfew timing in some districts by two hours.
"While maximum number of people permitted to attend indoor/outdoor gatherings will remain strictly restricted to 25, the banquet halls in the districts where Covid positivity rate is below 0.2 and weekly case load is less than 250, will be permitted to enhance limit of guests to 50 for vaccinated persons or those with verifiable RT-PCR or RAT report not older than 72 hours, the SEC said.
"The district magistrates and superintendents of police will ensure compliance of the order, it said.
While night curfew will remain in force in all districts from 8 pm to 7 am, the districts with positivity rate below 0.2 and weekly caseload less than 250 will observe curfew restrictions from 10 pm to 6 am, the order said.
However, Jammu and Kashmir reprted 128 fresh Covid cases on Sunday, taking the number of infected persons to 3,28,069 while one fresh death due to the virus took the toll to 4,417 in the Union Territory, officials said.
Out of the fresh cases, 19 were from the Jammu division and 109 from the Kashmir division, they said.
They said Srinagar district recorded the highest number of 68 cases followed by 14 in Budgam district.
There are 1,461 active cases in the Union Territory, while the number of recovered patients was 322191, the officials said.
The death toll in J&K due to the pandemic rose to 4,417 as one fresh death was reported in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, the officials said, there were 46 confirmed cases of mucormycosis (black fungus) in the Union Territory as no fresh case was reported since last evening.
According to the daily Media Bulletin on novel Corona virus (Covid-19), out of 328069 positive cases, 1461 are Active Positive, 322191 have recovered and 4417 have died; 2170 in Jammu division and 2247 in Kashmir division.
The Bulletin further said that out of 14361320 test results available, 14033251 samples have been tested as negative till today.
Till date 3470471 persons have been enlisted for observation which included 8134 persons in home quarantine including facilities operated by government, 1461 in isolation and 461058 in home surveillance. Besides, 2995401 persons have completed their surveillance period.
Providing district-wise breakup, the Bulletin said that Srinagar has 73703 positive cases (including 68 cases reported today) with 784 Active Positive, 72081 recovered (including 79 cases recovered today), 838 deaths; Baramulla has 24174 positive cases (including 09 cases reported today) with 131 Active Positive, 23761 recovered (including 12 cases recovered today), 282 deaths; Budgam reported 23462 positive cases (including 14 cases reported today) with 128 active positive cases, 23127 recovered (including 21 cases recovered today), 207 deaths; Pulwama has 15414 positive cases with 28 Active Positive, 15192 recovered and 194 deaths; Kupwara has 14321 positive cases (including 04 cases reported today), 31 Active Positive, 14124 recoveries (including 03 cases recovered today) and 166 deaths; Anantnag district has 16496 positive cases with 18 Active Positive, 16273 recovered and 205 deaths; Bandipora has 9700 positive cases with 28 Active Positive, 9571 recoveries and 101 deaths; Ganderbal has 10233 positive cases (including 06 cases reported today) with 55 Active Positive, 10099 recoveries and 79 deaths; Kulgam has 11471 positive cases 28 Active Positive, 11326 recoveries and 117 deaths while as Shopian has 5604 positive cases with 04 active positive cases, 5542 recoveries and 58 deaths.
Similarly, Jammu has 53115 positive cases (including 05 cases reported today) with 54 active positive cases, 51918 recoveries (including 02 cases recovered today), 1143 deaths; Udhampur has 11390 positive cases with 05 active positive cases, 11248 recoveries and 137 deaths; Rajouri has 11147 positive cases with 21 active positive, 10889 recoveries and 237 deaths; Doda has 7720 positive cases (including 04 cases reported today) with 74 Active positive, 7515 recovered and 131 deaths; Kathua has 9288 positive cases with no active positive case, 9137 recovered and 151 deaths; Samba has 7141 positive cases with 02 active positive cases, 7019 recoveries and 120 deaths; Kishtwar has 4805 positive cases with 08 Active Positive, 4753 recoveries and 44 deaths; Poonch has 6340 positive cases with 08 active positive, 6235 recoveries and 97 deaths; Ramban has 6011 positive cases with 04 active positive cases, 5940 recoveries and 67 deaths while Reasi has 6534 positive cases with 50 active positive cases, 6441 recoveries and 43 deaths.
According to the bulletin, among the total 328069 positive cases in J&K, 23363 have been reported as travelers while 304706 as others.
The Bulletin said that the breakup represents districts from which the patients have been traced or are ordinarily residing.
The bulletin added that there are 2423 COVID dedicated beds, 2019 Isolation beds with 2008 vacant beds and 404 ICU beds where 400 beds are vacant in Jammu division while there are 3353 COVID dedicated beds, 3074 Isolation beds where 2992 beds are vacant and 279 ICU beds where 258 are vacant beds in Kashmir division. There are a total of 5776 COVID dedicated beds, 5093 Isolation beds with 5000 beds vacant and 683 ICU beds with 658 vacant beds in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

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