Unlock 4.0: Schools for students of all classes to reopen simultaneously in this state

As several states are gearing up to reopen schools for students of Class IX-XII from Monday (September 21), Tamil Nadu government has announced that all the classes would start functioning simultaneously across the state once the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak comes under control.

Tamil Nadu Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan ruled out the idea of holding shift-based classes and phased-reopening of educational institutions and said that the government will wait for few more weeks before allowing the schools to reopen. He added that classes will not be held in shift as all the schools in the state have adequate infrastructure and classrooms to ensure the social distancing norms. 

It is to be noted that schools and colleges across India have been shut since March 25 after the announcement of nationwide lockdown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to curb the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 in the country.

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Meanwhile, India's coronavirus case tally surpassed 54 lakh mark as it added 92,605 new infections in the last 24 hours, data from the Health Ministry showed on Sunday (September 20).

The country's COVID-19 tally now stands at 54,00,619 including 10,10,824 active cases and as many as 43,03,043 cured or migrated. Maharashtra continues to be the worst affected by the coronavirus outbreak in the country with COVID-19 tally nearing 12 lakh mark. The total number of positive cases in the state has climbed to 11,88,015 and 32,216 deaths, according to the Union Health Ministry.

Total 86,752 deaths are reported so far in the country, including 32,216 from Maharashtra followed by 8,751 from Tamil Nadu, 7,922 from Karnataka, 5,302 from Andhra Pradesh, 4,953 from Uttar Pradesh, 4,945 from Delhi, 4,298 from West Bengal, 3,302 from Gujarat, 2,757 from Punjab and 1,943 from Madhya Pradesh. The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.