Birsa Agriculture University, the state’s premier agriculture varsity, on Monday announced postponement of the counselling process for admission into post graduate and Ph.d programmes till further notice owing to the shutdown of its administrative unit for two days after three staff members tested positive for Covid on Sunday.

“Counselling for all PG and Ph.D programmes for admission scheduled on April 7, 9 and 12, is hereby postponed due to the second phase of Covid outbreak. The next schedule for Offline / Online counselling will be announced well in advance,” read a statement from the varsity.

Vice chancellor Onkar Nath Singh, said, the decision to postpone admissions was taken after a meeting with all the deans of the varsity in the afternoon in the wake of the virus threat.

Singh added that all the resident students of the varsity including staff have been asked to be alert and not venture out unnecessarily without taking enough mandatory precautions.

The varsity also announced its decision to return to the online mode of teaching by suspending all offline classes as precaution.

On the other hand, Marwari College, an autonomous college affiliated to Ranchi University has also announced to suspend offline mode of mid-semester exam for undergraduate and post graduate students that was scheduled to commence from April 7. A notice in this regard has been put up on the college’s website in the evening.

Principal of Marwari College, U.C. Mehta, said, “Students of UG (2020-23) and PG (2020-22) had their mid-semester exam scheduled from April 7 via offline mode, but that has been cancelled due to the rapid rise in the covid-19 cases in Ranchi. We have now decided to take online exams, but fresh dates will be notified on the website after modalities are chalked out soon.”

Educational institutions, which started functioning earlier this year after being closed for months since last year’s lockdown, has been hit by increasing number of Covid-19 cases.

Last week, over two dozen students and staff of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) in Bundu got infected with the virus forcing authorities to seal the school as a precaution.

Bishop Westcott boys in Namkum too closed after a few students and teachers tested positive during the same time. In Jamshedpur too, at least three schools were shut down owing to Covid cases.