More Than 600 Students Test Positive For Covid After Schools Reopen in Maharashtra’s Solapur

As the cases went down, Maharashtra Minister of School Education Varsha Gaikwad had earlier this month asked the schools to reopen in Covid-free zones from July 12 for physical classes.

Solapur: As schools reopened in July for classes 8- 12, around 613 students have been tested positive in Maharashtra, Solapur district, media reports suggested. As the cases went down, Maharashtra Minister of School Education Varsha Gaikwad had earlier this month asked the schools to reopen in Covid-free zones from July 12 for physical classes.

Asking the schools to reopen, Varsha Gaikwad had said it has become a need of the hour to have a co-educational approach to reach out to the children of the last strata of the state.

It must be noted that the schools in Maharashtra were shut down in March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic had hit the country. As one of the worst-hit states in India, the schools didn’t reopen for offline classes throughout 2020 and the first 6 months of 2021.

Ahead of reopening the schools, the state education minister said that all teachers and staff members need to be vaccinated before the resumption of physical classes to limit the spread of the pandemic.

The development comes at a time when Maharashtra reported 6,857 new coronavirus infections and 286 fresh fatalities on Wednesday, taking the tally of cases to 62,82,914 and the death toll to 1,32,145.

The state witnessed a rise in new COVID-19 cases and fatalities as compared to Tuesday, when it had reported 6,258 infections and 254 deaths. Significantly, Bhandara district did not record any new coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours.

The Mumbai region reported 1,168 new COVID-19 cases and 112 fatalities, including 403 cases and six deaths in Mumbai city. The tally of COVID-19 cases in the Mumbai region surged to 16,37,744, while the death toll increased to 34,258.

On the other hand, Pune region reported 2,314 new COVID-19 cases and 78 fresh fatalities, including 307 infections and five deaths in Pune city. The Pune region’s COVID-19 caseload rose to 14,87,544, while the death toll increased to 28,449.

The Kolhapur region reported 1,690 new COVID-19 cases, followed by the Nashik region at 1,221, the Latur region at 359, the Aurangabad region at 56, the Akola region at 27 and the Nagpur region at 22 infections.