Amid rising Covid cases, Odisha government has decided to shut the universities, technical educational institutions and colleges from January 10 next till further orders.

However the Medical Colleges, Nursing Colleges & Institutions under control of Health and Family Welfare Department will remain open, the Special Relief Commissioner stated in an official notification on Friday.

Similarly, the government allowed the continuance of all ongoing offline examinations as per the scheduled programme with compliance to Covid appropriate behaviour.

The State government has already announced the closure of schools and Anganwadi Centres for kids in light of rapid surge in coronavirus cases and Omicron variants.

It is pertinent to note that the Covid cases has soared more than eight-fold in the last seven days with State today logging as many as 2,703 positive cases, the highest in the past six months.

“All Colleges/ Universities/ Technical Educational Institutions (other than Medical Colleges/Nursing Colleges & Institutions under control of Health &FW Dept.) under the superintendence of Government of Odisha shall remain closed with effect from 10th January, 2022,” the notification stated.

The Authorities of Colleges/ Universities/ Technical Educational Institutions shall take all appropriate measures for conducting classes through online/ virtual/ video/ other alternative method of learning mode.

All hostels in such academic institutions shall also remain closed with effect from January 10, 2022. Students shall be advised to avoid staying in the hostel in the interest of their personal health. However, scholars, researchers and students who desire to stay in hostel for research/ project works or other academic activities may be permitted to do so subject to student (s) giving undertaking to that effect to the appropriate authorities of the concerned institutions.

Teaching and non- teaching employees of Colleges/ Universities / Technical Educational Institutions shall work as per prevailing guidelines for government servants and perform duty such as taking online classes/ academic/ semi academic and administrative functions etc as assigned to them by the Authorities.

Coaching Institutions/ Organisations/ Individuals offering coaching services to students shall not run off-line/ physical coaching/ classes. However, virtual/ on-line coaching shall be permitted to continue. Any person found violating this order shall be punished under the provision of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and other relevant laws, the notification concluded.