Delhi, Haryana announce closure of schools amid COVID-19 surge

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Friday that all schools in the national capital will remain shut in light of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also announced the closure of schools in the state up to Class 8 till April 30.

"Due to increasing cases of Covid-19, all schools, government and private, in Delhi are being closed for all classes till further orders," Kejriwal tweeted on Friday.

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- Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 9, 2021

This announcement comes at a time when COVID-19 cases are surging in New Delhi. The national capital has been registering record new infections daily for the past week. Just on Thursday, New Delhi had registered 7,437 fresh cases of COVID-19. This was the highest single-day spike since November 2020.

Last week, the national capital reported 4,684 COVID-19 cases on average each day. This is the highest seven-day average case count since December 1, 2020.

Meanwhile, in Haryana 2,872 people tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday. This was the state's highest single-day spike in the last four months.

"We are continuously keeping an eye on the situation. Yesterday the prime minister also held a press conference with all chief ministers. Directions have been given…we will handle this on the basis of different cities. We will definitely have to be strict, a lot of things we have already said before to implement, social distancing, using masks, sanitization, reduce gatherings. We have also decided to close primary and middle schools until April 30," said Khattar, according to The Indian Express.

India reported 1,31,968 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours. Daily infections, which crossed one lakh for the first time on Sunday (April 4), this year, have now exceeded that mark four times in a week--April 6, April 7, April 8 and April 9.

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