The Bihar government directs schools to follow SOPs anticipating spread of Omicron Source: Shutterstock
The education department of Bihar has directed all private schools in Patna to take necessary measures for preventing the spread of COVID-19 new variant, Omicron. Schools have also been asked to be prepared to switch to online classes.
The Bihar Education Project Council (BEPC) released a notice on December 5, 2021, instructing higher authorities of private schools to start making arrangements for online classes. The district education officer of Patna, Amit Kumar has said that the government has identified the recent threat of Omicron to spread massively and thus the schools have been asked to be ready to start online classes and also keep the evaluation system ready as an alternative.
The schools have also been asked to follow COVID-19 Standard operating procedures (SOPs) strictly.
Schools must only engage staff members who are vaccinated with both the doses. Also, any student feeling ill must be immediately secluded from the rest of the class.
The Private Schools and Children Welfare Association (PSCWA) has asked its associated schools to take necessary preventive measures. The private schools have already conducted online classes for a year and the authority feels it would not be much of a problem to restart online classes.
The State government reopened all schools in full capacity in November 2021.
As of December 8, about 8,439 new COVID-19 cases have been recorded in India. About 20 cases of the Omicron variant have been detected till now in India. States have already scaled up vaccination drives, so far the Omicron variant has been detected in Mumbai, Rajasthan, Delhi and Gujarat.