Staff Correspondent: Dhaka, Jul-30,
The government has again extended the closure of secondary and higher secondary-level educational institutions until August 31 due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in the country.
The decision was taken considering the safety of
students, teachers and staffers in consultation with the National Advisory
Committee on Covid-19, said an official release signed by MA Khair, public
relations officer of the Education Ministry on Thursday.
Earlier, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni said the
government had decided to reopen educational institutions, particularly the
primary, secondary and higher secondary ones, in Bangladesh on June 13 if the
Covid-19 situation does not deteriorate.
Later, the government announced the extension of
closure of schools and colleges till July 31, and the Education Ministry issued
a notice in this regard.
The government shut educational institutions on
March 17 last year after the country reported its first Covid-19 cases on March
8.
The closure was extended several times after that.
On February 22, the education minister announced
that university classes would resume on May 24. Residential halls were also
scheduled to be reopened on May 17. But that did not happen due to the
worsening pandemic.
Covid situation in Bangladesh
As the Delta variant of Covid-19 engulfed the
country, Bangladesh recorded 239 more deaths caused by the virus in 24 hours
till Thursday morning.
Besides, 15,271 new people came out Covid positive
during the period after the test of 52,282 samples, according to a handout
issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The fresh cases took the country’s Covid death tally
to 20,255 today while the caseload to 1,226,253.
The country has been seeing nearly 200 deaths a day
for the past two weeks, shattering the records of daily cases and deaths almost
every other day.
Meanwhile, the daily test-positivity rate declined
slightly to 29.21% from Wednesday's 30.12% while the World Health Organization
(WHO) recommends a 5% or below rate.
However, the case fatality rate remained unchanged
at 1.65 % during the period, said the DGHS.
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