Gujarat: Schools, colleges shut in eight cities as COVID-19 cases rise

In the wake of the spike in COVID-19 cases in Gujarat, the state government has decided to discontinue offline education in eight major cities till April 10. This was decided at a high level meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in Gandhinagar on Thursday.

The decision comes on a day when the state reported 1,276 cases in the past 24 hours. With this, the total number of cases in Gujarat have gone up to 2,82,449. The death toll has touched 4,433, with the demise of three more people in the past 24 hours.

The increase in the number of cases is being attributed to the civic polls that ended last month and the ongoing T20 between India and England at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

After allowing only up to 50 per cent capacity of the stadium, which comes to more than 50,000 people, the Gujarat Cricket Association stopped the entry of spectators after the second encounter as more than 80 per cent of the spectators, including some top officials of the BCCI, were seen not wearing masks.

In Ahmedabad, night curfew has been extended by one hour. Instead of 10pm to 6am, the curfew will now be from 9pm to 6am. Malls and cinema halls will remain closed on weekends in Ahmedabad.

Education Minister Bhupendra Chudasama said offline education has been discontinued till April 10 in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Junagadh and Gandhinagar.

There will be online examinations for primary school students.

Offline examination of colleges and universities have been postponed till April 10 and new dates will be decided later on.