Schools in Madhya Pradesh will hold in-person classes for students at 50 per cent capacity until further orders which will be issued in another round of meetings to monitor the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the coming days, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on January 10.

The Chief Minister's statement came after he chaired a meeting to take stock of the preparations in the districts reporting over 75 per cent of the total daily COVID cases, which include Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Ujjain and Gwalior, among others. Meanwhile, Chouhan also directed officials in the state secretariat, and districts supervising the COVID protection management in view of the third wave of the pandemic, to ensure that daily COVID data is collected, prepared and updated on a timely basis.

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"Daily COVID cases are increasing fast in Madhya Pradesh. However, we are monitoring the situation carefully and further decisions on putting more restrictions will be taken according to the situation in the coming days. The increasing number of cases in Bhopal, Indore and other districts is obviously a big concern for us, but the overall COVID situation in the state is under control. Schools with 50 per cent seating capacity will be allowed to continue till the next decision is taken after reviewing the situation," Chouhan said.

The state registered 2,317 new COVID cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the number of active cases to 8,599, according to the health bulletin issued by the state government on January 10. Out of the 2,317 new cases, Indore and Bhopal reported 645 cases each, followed by Gwalior (291), Jabalpur (190), Sagar (121) and Ujjain (93), among others.