As Mumbai saw a dip in daily COVID cases, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said the civic body is planning to reopen schools in the city by January 27. Chahal said Mumbai had “moved past the peak” phase and the daily tally of COVID cases may see a further drop in the coming days.

“We expect the numbers to come down to levels of 1,000-2,000 by January 26, and we are now planning to re-open schools by January 27,” Chahal was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

Mumbai saw a decline in daily COVID cases over the last one week. On Tuesday, Mumbai reported 6,149 new COVID cases while the city recorded 5,956 cases on Monday (January 17). On Sunday (January 16), Mumbai registered 7,885 cases while 10,661 COVID cases were recorded in the city on Saturday (January 15). Mumbai witnessed its highest daily COVID tally spike of 20,971 cases on January 7. Since then, Mumbai saw a dip in positivity rate which dropped to 13.7 per cent from an average of 20-22 per cent over the past week.

Earlier, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced shutting all schools from Class 1 to 9 and Class 11 till January 31. Classes 10 (SSC) and 12 (HSC) will not be closed considering the crucial board examinations which are due to start around a month later.

However, BMC Commissioner Chahal said despite the schools for the other classes remaining, the online classes will continue as in the past for all the students. The move came barely a couple a few weeks after the BMC and state government took the decision to reopen schools – shut since March 14, 2020, with only online classes permitted – in stages in October and December 2021 – as the effects of the first and second waves of the Covid pandemic subsided.

Classes 8 to 12 were allowed to resume from October 4, and on December 15, the remaining – Classes 1 to 7 also started functioning offline, with a majority of the students turning up in schools.

With the spread of the third wave now, the Education Department discussed the measures keeping in mind the health and safety aspects before deciding to close all physical classes from Classes 1 to 9 and Class 11, till January 31.

School authorities rue that many had discontinued full-fledged online classes as students started attending the classes physically in large numbers with full Covid protocols implemented.