Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held a press conference today, January 14, 2021, via microblogging site Twitter to share an update regarding the closure of all schools across the state. While addressing the press, the CM said that it has been decided to defer the opening of schools from January 15 to 31, 2022.
This has been done to tackle the worsening situation of Covid-19 in the state. Once the situation becomes conducive, the state government will monitor the situation and then consider re-opening the schools. The Pre-board exams that were supposed to be conducted from January 20, 2022, will be now held as a remote test. The complete details regarding this shall be released in a day or two.
Along with this, the government has also decided to put restrictions on any kind of social gatherings like finance or religious events, political rallies in the state. This has been done to cap on the rapid spree of the pandemic in the state. He further said that those programmes that are going to be held in closed spaces shall be held with only 50% efficacy. All those religious, political or entertainment programmes that are supposed to be held in open space must not be held with more than 250 people. Other than this, any kind of sports activity must be conducted without any audience.
Supportive tweets started pouring after the conference was over and people have welcomed this decision of the state government. A lot of users wrote have been lauding the state government saying that this move is surely going to help in breaking the chain of infection in the state. As of now, there is a huge surge in the covid cases in Madhya Pradesh, at present, there are 17,652 active COVID-19 cases in the state. The worst-hit cities are Indore and Bhopal with the maximum number of cases at present.