Schools, colleges to reopen in phased manner from November 2 in Andhra Pradesh

The schools will be run on alternate days in three phases for which officials are making arrangements

As daily new Covid-19 cases have started falling below the 3,000 mark, the Andhra Pradesh government has planned to reopen the schools and colleges in the state in three phases beginning from Monday.

State Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney has on Thursday said that officials are making the arrangements with all precautionary measures in place.

Classes for Standard nine through 12 would commence from November 2 and function on alternate days only till noon; 6,7,8 Standards would restart from 23 November and 1-5 Standards from December 14 in the same format.

In higher education institutions, degree, PG classes would be held on a rotation basis from Monday.

Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy had earlier this month said that online classes will be conducted for the students unwilling to attend the school in person.

The state government had to postpone the reopening on two earlier dates in September and October, as the daily new Covid-19 positive cases were on a continuous surge, recording over 10,000 cases daily till last month.

Andhra Pradesh is nowadays witnessing a considerable drop in fresh cases to around three thousand cases. On Thursday, 2,905 positive cases are reported out of the 88,778 samples tested. The state has till now registered 8.17 lakh cases, out of which only 26,268 cases are active. Total Covid-19 related deaths are 6,659.

Meanwhile, while reviewing the medical infrastructure in the state on Thursday, Chief Minister Reddy said that the state government would be spending Rs 17,300 crore to revamp the existing government hospitals and for setting up 16 new medical colleges. He said that patients should experience the feel of corporate hospitals in government facilities.

The CM directed the authorities to immediately release Rs 5472 crore for revamping the existing hospitals under the Nadu-Nedu (Then-Now) programme. Reddy also instructed the officials to finalize the tenders for construction of the new medical colleges by January.