India's COVID-19 deaths surpass 500,000, schools to reopen in Delhi as cases decline

India's COVID-19 deaths surpassed 500,000, and the total tally of infections rose to 41,952,712 on Friday with 149,394 new cases registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.

The health ministry data showed 1,072 new deaths due to the pandemic reported since Thursday morning took the total death toll to 500,055.

There are currently 1,435,569 active COVID-19 cases in the country, a fall of 98,352 recorded during the past 24 hours.

A total of 40,017,088 COVID-19 patients have been cured and discharged from hospitals so far in the South Asian country, including 246,674 newly registered recoveries.

The Delhi government announced Friday that schools, colleges and all other educational institutions will be allowed to reopen from Monday, as COVID-19 cases decline once again in the capital of India.

Schools, that have been shut since the last week of December, will be reopened from the next week for students of Classes 9 to 12, and it has been made mandatory for all teachers to be fully vaccinated before resuming their work from Feb. 7.

It was also decided to open all offices with 100 percent capacity, instead of earlier restricted 50 percent.

The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority on Friday.

After the meeting, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that reopening of all sectors will be taken up step by step.

"All schools (class 9 onwards), colleges, institutes, universities, coaching to reopen from 7th Feb. Nursery to class 8 from 14th Feb. Higher education to be completely in physical mode," he tweeted.

"All gyms, spa and swimming pools shall be allowed to open. Restaurants shall be allowed to remain open till 11:00 p.m. Night curfew shall continue from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.," Sisodia said.

On Thursday, Delhi recorded 2,668 cases with a positivity rate of 4.3 percent, the lowest since the year began.