India logged a daily rise of 89,706 coronavirus infections on Wednesday, taking its second-highest tally globally to over 4.3 million cases as the government said it would reopen schools for students in upper grades after more than five months of closure, DPA reported. At least 1,115 deaths linked to the virus were reported in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of fatalities to 73,890, the Health Ministry said in its daily update. India is the second-most infected country globally, with 4,370,128 cases, behind only the United States, which has a total of 6,327,793 cases, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University. The ministry announced late Tuesday the partial reopening of schools from Sept. 21 for students between 9th and 12th grade. The final decision has been left to parents, who will have to provide a written permission for their children to go to school, the ministry said. Online learning will still be permitted. There was no word on opening schools for younger students. Classes limited to around 15 students, parents consent taken, blended education model of instruction along with the usual masks-gloves paraphernalia — this is how schools plan to resume when children return to campus. In its guidelines for Unlock 4, issued in August, the Ministry of Home Affairs allowed schools to partially reopen. According to the guidelines, students from Classes 9 to 12 are permitted to visit their school to seek guidance from teachers. On Tuesday, a more detailed standard operating procedure (SOP) was released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. However, with cases continuing to rise schools are wary and taking all precautions necessary. While some are holding off on finalizing the reopening strategy, others have come up with plans and are ready. Strategies include several measures — keeping the class size small, not allowing students to use public transport and cutting down the school time table to just three-four hours. This is, of course, apart from the regular measures such as physical distancing and mandating the use of masks, gloves and sanitizers. Schools are also in the process of taking consent from parents whose children wish to return or are being called in. Due to coronavirus, school colleges have been closed in the country since the last week of March, due to which there has been a lot of loss of students' education and now everyone is waiting for the school to open. — Agencies
