Jammu and Kashmir recorded 452 fresh cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours while the number of active cases witnessed a decline, the government said Monday.

An official spokesman said that of all the cases, 79 percent had been reported from Kashmir.

Of the 452 cases, 358 cases were reported from Kashmir and 94 from the Jammu division, taking the overall tally to 4,70,201.

The daily count of cases in Kashmir has witnessed a major spike during the past few weeks, raising concern over the strict implementation of COVID Appropriate Behaviour (CAB).

However, there was a considerable decrease in the active cases during the last 24 hours as the number of active cases decreased to 5045 compared to 5304 on Sunday.

The number of active cases in the Kashmir division is 3902 and 1143 in the Jammu division.

The death toll has remained static at 4776 – 2430 in the Kashmir division and 2346 in the Jammu division.

Meanwhile, 711 more COVID-19 infected persons recovered and were discharged from various hospitals including 485 from the Kashmir division and 226 from the Jammu division, taking the total recoveries to 4,60,380.

Over the past few weeks, the Kashmir region is showing a spike in the daily count of cases despite the government directives in place to combat the spread of infection.

The School Education Department (SED) is likely to shift the academic session to March from the current 2022-23 session.

The move comes in the wake of high-level deliberations held by the Administrative Department and the “operational mechanism” suggested by an expert committee earlier this year.

A top official privy to the developments told Greater Kashmir that the School Education Department (SED) was likely to make an official announcement about shifting to the March session of examination.

“The department has decided that it will switch to the March session from the current year and the official order is expected in the coming days,” the official said.

The SED is determined to shift the academic session to March and was working out the modalities and overcoming the hiccups in adopting the uniform academic calendar.

The Higher Education Department (HED) has already shifted the academic session to July in line with the National Academic Calendar.

Chief Secretary (CS) Arun Kumar Mehta in April this year said that J&K would fully implement the National Education Policy (NEP-2020) from the current academic session and move to a uniform academic calendar which in turn would be synchronised to the national academic calendar.

In this regard, the SED had constituted a high-level committee to suggest the modus operandi for shifting the November session of exams to March from the current academic session.

The committee was tasked to suggest ways and means how to go about it.

The committee has also suggested a certain mechanism by which the government could shift the academic session to March while considering the weather and climatic conditions of snow-bound inaccessible areas.

“Based on the recommendations of the committee and the pressure to adopt a national academic calendar, the department has decided to go ahead with the March session of examination from the current year,” the official said.

“The official announcement will take the students out from the dilemma and ease out parents who are anxious as well,” he said.

Principal Secretary SED Bishwajit Kumar Singh earlier said that the decision about shifting to the March session of the board examination would be announced within 15 days.

“Deliberations are going on in the department,” he had said.

Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajiv Rai Batnagar told Greater Kashmir that the department was examining the situation and working out probabilities about “how to go ahead with it”.

“But it is a good idea to have one academic calendar as it matches with the Higher Education Department and all other professional colleges as well,” Advisor Batnagar said. “We are looking at logistics in the hilly areas and making plans about what can be done in these areas.”

NEW DELHI, Aug 8: Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha called on President Draupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Monday. During this, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha congratulated her and also talked about Jammu and Kashmir and other subjects.