Covid-19: Kerala schools, colleges will not be shut as of now, says education minister
text_fieldsThiruvananthapuram: Kerala Education Minister V.Sivankutty on Thursday said schools and colleges won't be shut in the backdrop of increasing Covid-19 clusters and fear of Omicron variant.
He told the reporters that the government has been keeping a close tab on the number of Covid cases right from the day it decided to open educational institutions.
He added that an expert committee is keeping a watch on things and they will be taking the call as and when required if the educational institutions need to be closed.
"At the moment we are not going to close down educational institutions," he told reporters.
As of Wednesday, Omicron cases in the state has reached 230 and the daily case number spiked to spiked to 4,801.
In the past two days, the test positivity rate has increased to more than 6 per cent.
Meanwhile, Kerala government on Tuesday imposed new restrictions across the state in the view of rising COVID cases, fueled by the Omicron variant. The new curbs include putting a cap on the number of people attending any events.
As per the new directive, as many as 75 people can attend marriages, funerals, political, social and cultural events in a closed room. While, the number of people who can attend such functions in open areas have been limited to 150.