Puducherry, July 15(BPNS)

Chief Minister of Puducherry, N Rangasamy has decided to postpone the opening of schools and colleges of the Union Territory due to the Covid pandemic. While the education department of the territory had announced that schools for students from Class 9 to 12 would be opened from July 16 and all colleges including professional colleges and arts and science colleges would also be opened from July 16.

However, the Union Territory has now announced that it would not be opening the schools and colleges and a new date would be announced at a later stage.

Puducherry education minister in a statement said, “ The government had earlier decided to reopen schools and colleges. But now we have decided to postpone it due to the current Covid 19 situation. We will announce the opening of schools and colleges at a later date.”

The decision of the Puducherry Union Territory postponing opening of schools and colleges came after 121 fresh Covid -19 cases were reported on Wednesday taking the total cases to 1.19 lakh.

Test Positivity Rate(TPR) in the Union Territory is now at 1.99% while the fatality rate is 1.49% and the recovery rate is 97.40%.

Around 4.35 lakh people above the age of 45  have taken the first dose of vaccination in the Union Territory.  37,646 health care workers and 22,944 front line workers have been vaccinated in the territory till date.