The district administration closed Government Senior Secondary School, Chaunta, till March 2 after 15 students, a teacher and a peon tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday.
Deputy commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma also directed the Ludhiana civil surgeon to depute a medical team at the school, where students will report only for testing.
The cases come nine days after a teacher was found infected on February 7. However, the sampling of the school staff and students was started by the Community Health Centre, Koom Kalan, only on February 11, exposing more people to the virus.
All infected students, who are from Classes 11 and 12, the teacher and the peon have been sent into isolation.
“In the wake of the fresh cases, the school will hold pre-board examinations for all classes after the school will reopen on March 3,” said Rajinder Kaur, district education officer, secondary.
School principal Rooma Rani said, “As we got to know regarding the positive results of the students in the morning, we informed them to stay home. We also sounded the education department about the new cases, following which it was decided to conduct the pre-board exams after the school reopens on March 3.”
She added that none of the students had symptoms and were found positive after sampling by the health department.
{{/usCountry}}She added that none of the students had symptoms and were found positive after sampling by the health department.
{{/usCountry}}According to sources, all infected students had appeared in the pre-board exam on Monday and had come in contact with other students.
Civil surgeon Dr Sukhjeevan Kakkar confirmed that reports of 15 students and two employees had returned positive and added that they had started the contact-tracing process.
Since February 11, a total of 410 students and 19 teachers of the school have been tested, while another 140 gave their samples on Tuesday.