With COVID cases rising across the country, owing to the new Omicron variant of the virus, states are closing their schools. The latest on the list is Odisha. Amid a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, the Odisha government on Sunday said that it was withholding its decision to reopen schools for students of Classes 1 to 5 from Monday.

School and Mass Education Minister SR Dash, in a statement, said the decision was taken after officials visited various primary schools across the state and held discussions with the stakeholders. “Keeping in view the rise in a number of daily cases and based on the feedback provided by parents across the state, we have decided not to reopen schools for students of Classes 1 to 5 from January 3,” he stated.

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Dash, however, maintained that physical classes for students of Classes 6 to 10 will continue for now. He also said that offline examination, as scheduled earlier, will be conducted adhering to COVID-19 protocols. Odisha, on Sunday, registered 424 more Coronavirus cases. Sixty-seven of the new patients are children below 18 years of age.