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 them being state Education Minister, announced on Saturday that the state government plans to reopen schools, colleges and educational institutions from September 1, adding that the final decision would, however, be taken by the Centre.

"The state government is considering a proposal to open the 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 the schools from September 1, but the final decision will be taken by the 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 the Ministry of Home Affairs has announced Unlock 3, Sarma said his government would like to continue with some restrictions, at least till August 15 in order to keep the grip tightened on COVID-19 situation is on the 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 the situation which is improving. If we can maintain our current testing trend, which has been very encouraging, we might even flatten the coronavirus curb by August 15," Biswa Sarma told media persons.

The 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 the improvement of Guwahati which had previously witnessed an alarming surge in COVID-19 infections with the positive rate of the capital city as on July 31 improving drastically to 4.5% as against July 4 when it was 33.5%.

(With inputs and Image from ANI)

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