Amid surge in positive cases in Kashmir Valley, especially in Srinagar city, authorities on Sunday extended closure of schools barring 10th and 12th standards across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The decision to continue the closure of schools was taken in a meeting chaired by Chief Secretary A K Mehta to review the COVID situation in the Union Territory. Besides schools, the government has retained all the COVID-19 containment guidelines, including the night curfew.
"Classes for 12th and 10th standards shall be permitted with limited in-person teaching not exceeding 50 percent on a given day for vaccinated students and staff," an order issued by J&K Government reads, adding, "Consent shall be obtained from the parents of all students who are willing to attend the school. The school premises should be thoroughly sanitized. Proper screening regarding vaccination should be done on the school gate."
The schools, except for relaxations as provided above for students of 12th and 10th classes, shall continue to remain closed for on-site/in-person teaching.
Maximum gathering restricted to 25 only
As per the new COVID guidelines issued by the authorities, the maximum number of people permitted to attend any indoor/ outdoor gathering shall be strictly restricted to 25.
However, in banquet halls in districts with a positivity rate below 0.2 and weekly caseload is below 250, the gathering shall be permitted up to an enhanced limit of 50, for vaccinated persons/ persons with verifiable RT-PCR or RAT report not older than 72 hours.
Except for some parts of Srinagar no weekend curfew in any district
There shall be no weekend curfew in any district across the UT except for some areas of the Srinagar district.
However, night curfew shall continue to remain in force in all districts from 8 pm to 7 am but for those districts with positivity rate below 0.2 and weekly caseload below 250 where it would be from 10 pm to 6 am.
All Deputy Commissioners shall intensify testing by making optimum use of available RT-PCR and RAT capacities. There shall be no drop-in testing levels.
COVID curfew imposed in some parts of Srinagar district
After witnessing a spike in positive cases, the district administration on Friday has imposed a strict COVID curfew in some parts of Srinagar city for 10 days.
Srinagar has once again emerged as a COVID hotspot in the Union Territory. During the last few days, Srinagar city is continuously recording over 50 percent of the total COVID positive cases tested across the Union Territory.
On Sunday, all 20 districts of J&K recorded 127 positive cases during the last 24 hours. Out of these total 127 cases in all 20 districts, 56 were reported from Srinagar alone.
