Srinagar, Apr 4 (IANS): The Jammu and Kashmir government has restricted gatherings and decided to close all schools up to Class 9 for two weeks and Classes from 10-12 for one week in view of the rising Covid-19 cases across the UT.

The office of the J&K Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha on Sunday tweeted that in view of the rising trend in Covid-19 cases and the likelihood of young children getting infected and transmitting infection in large numbers, all classes up to and including Class 9 in schools will be closed for two weeks in all schools beginning on Monday till April 18.

"Classes 10, 11 & 12 will also be closed for one week in all schools from Monday, 5 April 2021 till 11 April 2021 in entire J&K," the LG said in another tweet.

"Further, all gatherings for social and customary functions will be restricted to 200 only and after following due COVID SOPs," Sinha further tweeted.

There has been a spurt in Covid-19 cases in J&K. On Saturday, 501 new positive cases were reported, 108 from the Jammu division and 393 from the Kashmir division, thus taking the total number of cases to 1,32,439. Out of these, 3,574 are active, 1,26,860 have recovered and 2,005 have died.