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Karnataka govt tells educational institutes to keep a check on Covid cases
The Karnataka health department on Thursday asked all schools and colleges, especially those in Bengaluru, to adopt precautionary measures a day after 31 students tested positive for Covid-19 in two schools in the state capital.
The Karnataka health department on Thursday asked all schools and colleges, especially those in Bengaluru, to adopt precautionary measures a day after 31 students tested positive for Covid-19 in two schools in the state capital.
Twenty-one students of New Standard English School and 10 students of MES School tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday.
“We have told them that all symptomatic students should not be allowed to attend classes. All the primary and secondary contacts of the infected children are being tested,” said state health commissioner Randeep D.
All schools have been directed to ensure that students mandatorily wear face masks and they are maintaining physical distance in the class or while eating, Randeep said.
According to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) health officials, the cases came to light after some students were subjected to Covid tests during vaccination. Both the schools have been sanitised.
Following this, the BBMP has directed officials to initiate precautionary measures and maintain the Covid-19 protocol in schools and colleges in the city. Educational institutions have been asked to conduct compulsory thermal scanning at the time of entry for teachers, students and staff.
If symptoms are found, they must be isolated and subjected to the Covid test. School authorities have been asked to confirm whether their staff have received two doses and a booster dose of vaccination, officials elaborated on the instructions.
BBMP special commissioner (health) Dr KV Trilok Chandra said as a precautionary measure, both the schools announced holidays for three days till Friday up to classes V and VI and the premises had been completely sanitised. All the students have been vaccinated.
Bengaluru saw yet another uptick in Covid tally as it registered 615 cases of Karnataka’s 648 fresh infections on Wednesday. The state capital also recorded one death for the first time since June 5, the data released by the health department revealed.
Active cases in the state rose to 3,997, of which, 3,843 were from Bengaluru. The state government ramped up testing on Wednesday, conducting around 23,452 tests, while 18,883 tests were conducted on Tuesday.
Despite the increased testing, Karnataka’s positivity rate declined to 2.76 per cent from Tuesday’s 3.15 per cent.
Bengaluru logged a positivity rate of 3 per cent, more than that of the state. 509 people recovered in the city out of 532 discharges across the state, and around 18,449 people were vaccinated on Wednesday in Bengaluru, compared to 16,729 on Tuesday.
The state’s health minister, Dr K Sudhakar, in a tweet announced new milestones achieved by the state government in their vaccination drive.
In a respite for the city, active clusters decreased from 25 to 23 as wards with less than 10 cases went down to 133 from the 140. There were 143 wards with less than 10 cases in Bengaluru on Monday. The recovery rate was 98.84 per cent.
