Schools in Delhi unlikely to reopen until vaccine against COVID-19 avaiable: Manish Sisodia

Until we get some vaccine, schools (in Delhi) are not likely to open, Mr Sisodia, who is also Delhi's Education Minister, said.

Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has said that the schools in the national capital are unlikely to reopen until the vaccine is available. The schools have been kept closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In mid-March, schools, colleges and other educational institutions across the country were shut down, when the Centre announced a countrywide classroom shut down as part of measures to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
"Until we get some vaccine, schools (in Delhi) are not likely to open,” Mr Sisodia, who is also Delhi's Education Minister, told reporters. On October 30, he had announced the schools will be kept closed until further orders, stating that the parents are not in favour of sending their wards to schools yet. 

"We keep getting feedback from parents that they are really concerned about whether it is safe to reopen schools. It is not. Wherever schools have reopened, COVID-19 cases among children have risen. So we have decided that as of now schools in the national capital will not reopen. They will continue to be closed till further orders," Mr Sisodia had said then.

Earlier, the Centre had allowed schools to reopen in a phased manner to call students from Class 9 to Class 12 on a voluntary basis from September 21. However, the Delhi Government decided against it.

Delhi recorded 4,454 fresh COVID-19 cases on Monday and a positivity rate of 11.94 per cent while 121 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 8,512, authorities said. These relatively low number of fresh cases came out of the 37,307 tests conducted on Sunday, including 18,046 RT-PCR tests, according to the latest bulletin issued by the Delhi health department. On last Friday, authorities had said that 23,507 RT-PCR tests, the highest till date, were conducted a day before. The highest single-day spike till date here -- 8,593 cases -- was recorded on November 11 when 85 fatalities were recorded. As many as 121 fatalities were recorded on Monday, same as the previous day. This is the sixth time in the last 12 days that the daily number of deaths has crossed the 100-mark.

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