“The ongoing phase of lockdown is set to conclude on January 31 and to provide relaxations in the next phase, the Chief Minister will meet the team of health experts formed by the government and district collectors on the same day.

Following the meeting with health experts and collectors, the Chief Minister will announce relaxations for next phase,” said sources at the Secretariat.

The first announcement for lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic was made on March 24, last year, and since then the state government had been announcing lockdown for every month. However, after the COVID-19 positive cases began to decrease in the state, government started providing relaxations in every phase of lockdown.

Till January, most restrictions have been lifted and relaxations have been provided in almost all the fields except in containment zones. However, in the next phase of lockdown, state government is planning to provide further relaxations.

Sources said that the school education department is in discussion to permit plus one students to school. “At present SSLC and plus two students are alone permitted to attend classes, but now school education department is planning to allow students of ninth and eleventh standards to schools.

However, there is no talks of permitting students from standards 1 to 8 to attend schools,” said sources.

Sources also said that higher education department is also in talks to permit students of all years to colleges to commence regular education. All the recommendations will be sent to the Chief Minister who will discuss with the medical experts and a decision will be taken based on the review meeting.