Schools in Odisha to remain closed till December 31

In Odisha, schools will not open in 2020 and all schools will continue to be closed till the 31st of December this year. According to a notification issued by the School and Mass Education Department, the decision has been taken keeping in view the second wave of covid-19 in some states. The decision follows extensive discussions with all the stakeholders.
Backgrounded against an apprehension of the second surge of covid-19, the decision leaves the students to bank on the digital and distance mode of learning to hold onto their academic career. Earlier the state government had almost decided to reopen schools for in-person classes for the 9th to the 12th standard students, anytime after the 15th of this month. With a covid-19 positivity rate of 6.18 %,  though Odisha continues to fare better than many states in containing the virus,  the state government is apprehensive of a second bout of viral growth around the second week of December.
Meanwhile, the state's covid-19 active caseload has further dropped to 13,789 as against a total case count of 2,98,678. However, in terms of daily case discovery and recovery, the trend is one of cancelling out of the fresh cases by almost an equal number of recovered patients, as of now.