Leh, September 18: All schools and residential hostels in Leh will remain closed for the next fortnight starting from September 18, in view of fresh coronavirus cases reported from schools, the Ladakh administration said.

The order issued on Friday by the administration of the union territory said that the situation will be reviewed later. Also Read | Karnataka Suicide Horror: Minor Girl Lived With Five Dead Bodies for 5 Days in Bengaluru.

Online classes will continue with Covid-appropriate Standard Operating Protocols, it said. "All (Govt./Private) schools including residential hostels in Leh district shall remain closed for imparting in-person classes with immediate effect for 15 days, ie. from September 18 to October 2, thereafter, the situation shall be reviewed again. However, online classes shall be encouraged with COVID SOPs," reads the order. Also Read | Uttar Pradesh: 25-Year-Old Man Stabbed to Death By Relative In Busy Market Area of Moradabad District.

The order signed by Shrikant Balasaheb Suse, chairman of the district disaster management authority (DDMA), Leh, also instructs the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Education Officer of the district to ensure that children leaving their residential schools/hostels for their homes undergo a mandatory RT-PCR test and a seven-day home quarantine along with their family members irrespective of their test results.

Earlier, the office of the district magistrate had reported the emergence of a cluster of Covid-19 positive cases from a school and ordered the area comprising of the school campus as a containment zone and ordered contact tracing to step the further spread of the virus.

Schools in the union territory had opened on September 1 after all educational institutions, were shut in April in Ladakh after a surge in Covid-19 positive cases.

Meanwhile, Ladakh on Friday reported one new COVID-19 positive case taking the total number of COVID-19 active cases in the union territory Ladakh to 109; 106 in Leh and 3 in Kargil distrct.

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