False: Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have shut schools till May 2021 due to a spike in COVID-19 cases.

By: Ankita Kulkarni
March 7 2021

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Both states have reopened schools again, and officials have denied news of shut down due to an increase in COVID -19 cases.In several states across India, schools and colleges have remained shut due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But since the number of cases has been dropping, several states are reopening schools in a specified manner with required preventive measures. Schools in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana reopened for the physical classes nearly after 11 months on February 1, 2021. Two fake circulars claiming that both the states have declared holidays for schools till May 2021 on account of rising COVID-19 cases have gone viral. On observing, we found glaring spelling errors in the circulars like the word Andhra misspelled as ‘Andra’ and other grammatical mistakes, which is unusual in government orders. Surprisingly, the government seal used to authenticate the document is the same in both though it belongs to two states. Andhra Pradesh Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh also confirmed in a tweet that the circulars were fake and urged people not to believe in unverified news, and said that schools were functioning normally. He said that that classes for school students for the current academic year would continue till June. Furthermore, we did not find any order issued by the Telangana government on the official website. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.