Assam mulls to reopen schools, colleges from September 1; final decision lies with Centre

Himanta Biswa Sarma who is working in various capacity in Assam, one of m being state Education Minister, anunced on Saturday that state government plans to reopen schools, colleges and educational institutions from September 1, adding that  final decision would, however, be taken by Centre.

" state government is considering a proposal to open schools in Assam from September 1 and teachers will have to get a COVID-19 test between August 23 and 30," Sarma said in a press conference.

"We are planning to open schools from September 1, but final decision will be taken by central government. Testing of COVID-19 will be made compulsory for teachers from August 23-30. However, schools up to class 4 will remain closed," he added.

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Even as Ministry of Home Affairs has anunced Unlock 3, Sarma said his government would like to continue with some restrictions, at least till August 15 in order to keep grip tightened on COVID-19 situation is on track of improvement. 

“We’d like to continue with some restrictions, at least till August 15 because we don’t want to loosen our grip on situation which is improving. If we can maintain our current testing trend, which has been very encouraging, we might even flatten coronavirus curb by August 15," Biswa Sarma told media persons.

state has reported 41,726 infections of which 10,180 are active while 31,442 have been discharged with 101 deaths so far. Sarma even shared improvement of Guwahati which had previously witnessed an alarming surge in COVID-19 infections with positive rate of capital city as on July 31 improving drastically to 4.5% as against July 4 when it was 33.5%.

(With inputs and Im from ANI)

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