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Rural Pune admin keeps Covid at bay with 101 schools back to offline classes
There are still 109 Covid hotspots in the 13 talukas. It had come down to 88 in the second week of June. The scenario has kept Pune rural under level 4 restrictions and hotels and restaurants are not permitted to have dine-in customers.
The Pune rural administration has managed to keep the Covid-19 virus at bay during the first 15 days of schools reopening for Class 8 to Class 12. Of the 102 schools that have reopened, following state government directives, only one school has been closed again as two students were detected Covid positive.
“The incident happened in Bhor taluka, however, Covid-19 was not detected in any other students and teachers. Still, as a precautionary measure the school is shut,” said Sunanda Wakhare, secondary school officer, Zilla Parishad.
The other schools are going on smoothly, as regular RT-PCR tests are conducted and an eight- member committee is also keeping a close watch that Covid-19 protocols are followed strictly by students, teachers and non-teaching staff.
“We are conducting regular temperature checks before children enter the school premises. Parents are also consulted regularly on taking all the precautionary measures,” said a health offical from Velhe taluka, on request of anonymity.
“We are monitoring the situation before reopening any schools. In many villages there are still Covid positive patients, however, most of them are asymptomatic. Still as per directives we cannot open the schools,” added Wakhare.
The government has only allowed schools to reopen in places where there are no Covid cases.
There are still 109 Covid hotspots in the 13 talukas. It had come down to 88 in the second week of June. The scenario has kept Pune rural under level 4 restrictions and hotels and restaurants are not permitted to have dine-in customers.
Students and teachers happy
Kisan Gore, a teacher at Tamini High School, said, “We are now able to focus more on children as we are regularly meeting them. Earlier we had a connection issue so we used to teach them in open spaces. It could not have been possible due to rains.”
Atul Rakshe, a class 9 student, said, “Regular classes and a teacher explaining the subject on the black-board makes it easy to understand.”
