West Bengal schools, colleges closed

All schools, colleges and other educational institutions in West Bengal will be closed tomorrow onward, Chief Secretary of the state HK Dwivedi announced on Sunday.

The decision to close schools was taken after reviewing the current Covid situation in the state and amid concerns of the first-spreading Omicron verient, a government statement said, NDTV reports.

“All academic activities in schools, colleges and universities shall remain closed. Only administrative activities shall be permitted with 50% of employees at a time,” the government order reads. West Bengal is the second state in the country to completely shut down educational institutions this month. Earlier this week, the Delhi government had decided to close all educational institutions to contain the spread of the new variant.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asked officials to review the overall COVID-19 situation in the state and suggested schools, colleges might be shut down for some time if the situation demands.