Mumbai schools reopen for classes 1 to 7, set to resume in Pune tomorrow

Schools in Mumbai reopened for classes 1 to 7 on Wednesday after more than 20 months amid a rising threat against the Omicron variant of coronavirus across the country. Schools were shut in the region in March 2020 as part of restrictions imposed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Children are happy to go back to school once again. Physical schooling is better than online schooling. The school has taken all the precautions," a parent at Andhra Education Society (AES) school in Mumbai’s Wadala told news agency ANI.

An order to reopen the schools in the metropolis was issued by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal. As per the order, schools have been asked to follow all Covid-19 protocols like wearing of masks, sanitisation and social distancing, while RT-PCR test has been made mandatory for teachers and non-teaching staff who are not fully vaccinated yet, while pushing for vaccination for all those eligible.

Schools are also set to resume for physical classes in Pune on Thursday, according to an order issued by Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner Vikram Kumar on Tuesday.

Primary and middle schools were supposed to reopen in the first week of December in Pune and Mumbai but the decision was postponed due to the emergence of the Omicron variant in the state.

So far, seven cases of Covid-19 infections with Omicron variant have been reported in Mumbai, all of them mild or asymptomatic, Maharashtra Health Department said on Tuesday evening. The state has reported a total of eight cases with one more person getting infected with Omicron in the Vasai Virar area of Maharashtra.

India is on high alert for the Omicron or B.1.1.529 strain of the coronavirus, which was first reported in Botswana on November 11, 2021, and subsequently surged in South Africa. It has already been declared a ‘variant of concern’ by the World Health Organization (WHO).