Tamil Nadu: Despite third wave risk, government plans to open schools

With daily COVID-19 cases grazing the 2,000 mark over the past few days and the fear of a third wave, the Tamil Nadu government has announced a new set of restrictions.

All places of worship will be shut on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, in order to prevent crowding. Earlier, the government had also permitted the District Administration or Civic Body or Police to close all marketplaces that witness huge crowds. 

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Claiming that the health experts had advised so, the government says it plans to resume physical classes for students of classes 9 to 12, from September 1.

The government intends to do so with 50 per cent occupancy in classrooms and in adherence to COVID-19 norms and they add that it would be decided based on the opinions of all concerned stakeholders. The government also emphasised that online learning has caused a huge disparity as many students couldn’t attend online classes. However, those below the age of 18 (school students) are not eligible for vaccination and suitable vaccines aren’t made available for them. 

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Regarding medical and nursing colleges, the government said that they would be permitted to re-open from August 16, adding that the students and faculty had been vaccinated under the frontline workers' quota.

Owing to the third wave fears and rising cases in Kerala, Tamil Nadu has made a two-shot vaccination certificate or RT-PCR mandatory for those entering from Kerala from August 05.