Himachal Pradesh government has decided to keep all the schools in the state closed till August 22, after resuming physical classes for the students of Class 10 to 12 briefly. All schools in the state will remain closed except the residential schools. The education department will issue separate guidelines for the health and safety of the students of the residential schools.

However, the teachers and other staff members will continue with their duties.

The state government on August 2 reopened the schools for the students of Class 10 to 12 with adherence to all Covid-19 norms.

On the other hand, for entry into the state, it is compulsory for tourists to carry a negative RT-PCR test report not older than 72 hours or Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) report not older than 24 hours from the time of arrival in the state. Those who have vaccination certificates and local residents will be exempted from this.

This decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Tuesday. Earlier in June, the state government had issued a travel advisory for tourists visiting the state, and now due to a sudden surge, the government has made negative test reports mandatory.

As per the official press release, inter-state, inter-district and intra-district movement of public transport buses are now allowed to operate with 50 percent occupancy with effect from Aug 13. For the inter-state public buses, the Transport Department will frame the guidelines for checking of RTPCR/RAT test reports or Vaccine certificates, so that only eligible passengers will board the buses.

The state has recently seen a surge in Covid-19 cases. The state reported 2318 new cases on August 10 while for the last few days the daily cases were around 800. This has prompted the government to take strict measures to curb the surge.

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