Puducherry, Jul 15 (IANS): Chief Minister of Puducherry, N. Rangasamy on Thursday decided to postpone the opening of schools and colleges of the union territory due to the Covid pandemic.

While the education department of the union territory had announced that schools for students from Class 9 to 12 would be opened from July 16 and all colleges would also be opened from July 16.

However, the UT has now announced that it would not be opening the schools and colleges and a new date would be announced at a later stage.

Puducherry education minister in a statement said, "The government had earlier decided to reopen schools and colleges. But now we have decided to postpone it due to the current Covid 19 situation. We will announce the opening of schools and colleges at a later date."

The decision of the UT to postpone the opening of schools and colleges came after 121 fresh Covid-19 cases were reported on Wednesday taking the total cases to 1.19 lakh.

The Test Positivity Rate (TPR) in the UT is now at 1.99 per cent while the fatality rate is 1.49 per cent and the recovery rate is 97.40 per cent.

Around 4.35 lakh people above the age of 45 have taken the first dose of vaccination in the union territory. A total of 37,646 healthcare workers and 22,944 frontline workers have been vaccinated in Puducherry till date.