Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday expressed her concern over the fresh surge in Covid-19 cases in the state and said her government might again shut down schools and colleges for “some more days” if the latest round of spread was seen affecting students.

She, however, said the final decision would be taken after the education and the health departments reviewed the situation, following which new protocols would be issued on January 3.

“Covid has come back again...the third wave. There is a surge across the country, which includes the omicron variant. So, review the situation to decide whether schools and colleges would remain open in such a situation,” she said in a reply to a briefing by education secretary Manish Jain at an administrative review meeting of South 24-Parganas district in Gangasagar.

“Keep a watch on the situation and if you find that students at schools are being infected in large numbers, then we would declare holidays for some days,” Mamata added while discussing arrangements for students’ week, which would be held across the state to distribute students’ credit cards.

Schools and colleges in the state reopened on November 16, after a gap of about 20 months. Schools were allowed to organise daily academic activities from Class VIII to Class XII. In the past one month, several schools and colleges reported a rise in Covid cases, prompting some schools in the district to announce temporary closure of the institutions.

“.... Madhyamik and higher secondary examinations are ahead. So check the situation,” the chief minister went on, indicating that the government was considering closing down school, college and university campuses.

As preparations for the third wave became the main topic of discussion at the review meeting, she also said the state government would consider reducing the number of local train services and would take a call on international flights coming to Calcutta. Mamata advised chief secretary H.K. Dwivedi to issue new protective protocols on and from January 3 and identify containment zones in Calcutta and its fringes where the rate of infections was quite high.

While discussing the Covid situation and vaccination in the state, she turned the gun on the Centre and said New Delhi should complete the vaccination process by sending the second dose before launching administration of booster jab.The meeting became a Covid preparedness meeting after health secretary N.S. Nigam informed her that the number of positive cases in the state crossed the 1,000 mark on Wednesday.

Daily scanning of Covid cases done by the state health department indicates that in the past two days, the state witnessed a spike in positive cases. On Tuesday, 752 cases were reported in comparison to 439 cases on Monday. On Wednesday, the number crossed the 1,000 mark.

“The new infections are mostly noticed in the city and its fringes,” the health secretary pointed out.

A section of officials said even if the fresh Covid guidelines were issued on January 3, the state should impose some sort of restriction ahead of the New Year’s Day. “The result of restriction-free celebrations on Christmas is visible… The new positive cases are rising rapidly. If no restrictions are imposed ahead of the New Year eve, the situation could go out of control within a few weeks,” said a senior official.

The announcement of the chief minister about a possible fresh shutdown of the schools has put the officials in the education department in a quandary claiming that it might affect the vaccination drive of the teens that is scheduled to begin from January 3. The state government has targeted vaccinating 48 lakh persons in the age group of 15 to 18, which the officials think might suffer in case the schools are closed again.

“If the schools are closed, there would be problems getting the students. It would be a challenge for us to bring students from home,” said an official, adding that it would be difficult to achieve the target.

The health department has issued orders to the district administrations to ensure that the vaccination for the age group of 15-18 has started at least in a school of each block and municipality on the inaugural day.

Officials of the health and the school education departments held a meeting recently in which it was decided that only one or two vaccinators with vaccines would be sent to the schools and the school would provide three staff who would take care of observation and registration of students in Cowin software.