Jharkhand to reopen schools for classes 9 to 12 for four hours, offline classes to resume for final year students of UG and PG courses

Ranchi, July 30: Higher classes in schools, final year classes in colleges can commence in Jamshedpur and other parts of the state from Saturday onwards.

The Jharkhand government in a communique issued on Friday evening gave permission to relax more lockdown like relaxations as Covid-19 cases go down, especially for  business establishments and educational institutions.

As per the new guidelines, offline classes for students of standard 9 to 12 can resume. But the schools will stay open till 12 pm and children will be allowed in only after getting parents’ permission. This will see classes in schools and colleges after a span of nearly three months as the educational institutions were closed since April 21 this year as Covid second wave saw surge in cases.

In addition to this, colleges can also reopen for the final year classes of both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. For returning to classes, which will function till 12 pm, students are required to be vaccinated with at least one dose.

Students above the age of 18 can only attend coaching classes, provided they have had at least one dose of the anti-Covid jab. The teachers are also required to be vaccinated. A classroom can only function with 50% capacity.

In all the educational institutions including colleges online classes will also have to continue simultaneously.

Teaching and non-teaching staff are required to attend schools and colleges. All staff and students will be tested for Covid-19 at regular intervals.

Students will need permission from parents to attend schools, classes will function till 12 pm and a maximum of 4 hours per day and college students should be at least partially vaccinated to attend classes and coaching students can reopen with 50 per cent capacity.

Among other relaxations also include permission for cinema halls and multiplexes to resume service at 50% capacity. Restaurants and bars can also function till 10 pm with the same rule.

All shops in all districts can stay open till 8 pm. But establishments apart from restaurants, bars and essential services (grocery stores, and fruit and vegetable shops) will have to stay shut from 8 pm on Saturday till Monday 6 am.

Further, all government and private offices can allow 100% of their staff to return to work.

In other directives all private and government  offices shall function with 100% capacity and  all shops, except the ones dealing in essential items, will remain closed from 8 pm on Saturdays till 6 am on Mondays.

Cinema halls, bars, multiplexes shall open with 50 per cent capacity.

However, No more than 100 people shall be allowed to gather in open places and religious places will remain closed and interstate buses will be allowed to resume. No e-pass will be required for interstate travel while swimming pools will remain closed

Jharkhand reported 27 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, which pushed the tally to 3,47,049, a health department bulletin said on Thursday.

The death toll due to the disease death toll rose to 5,126 in the state with one fresh fatality due to the contagion reported from East Singhbhum.

Of the 27 new cases, Bokaro reported six cases followed by four from Ranchi and three from Deoghar.

Jharkhand now has 237 active Covid-19 cases, while 3,41,686 patients have recovered from the disease, including 36 during the last 24 hours, the bulletin said.

The mortality rate in the state remained at 1.47%, higher than the national average of 1.30%. The recovery rate in the state has improved to 98.45%, better than the national average of 97.40%.

Further ITI skill development centres and polytechnics will be opened and for them also one dose of vaccination has been made mandatory. The government has said that on a regular basis it would be undertaking covid test of the students and teachers and other staff in the schools and other educational institutions apart from that would remain shut.