Civic body’s flu advisory to schools

This winter vacation the civic body will make sure that your children don’t go on school trips, reports HT Correspondent.

This winter vacation the civic body will make sure that your children don’t go on school trips.

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As a precautionary measure for the second wave of swine flu expected to engulf the city during winter, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has now decided to issue an advisory notice to all the city schools to postpone all picnics, field trips and educational tours.

“We are advising the schools to defer all outdoor activities which will increase the exposure to the H1N1 virus,” said Manisha Mhaiskar, additional municipal commissioner also in charge of health.

Even the schools have welcomed the move.

“School picnics are not compulsory. If the BMC asks us to postpone or even cancel them for a year, we will welcome it. It is a precaution and there is no harm in abiding by it,” said Kiran Bajaj, principal, Green Lawns high school, Breach Candy.

The civic body’s preparedness also includes getting the staff trained under the National Institute of Virology (NIV).

In the upcoming standing committee meeting the decision will be taken to purchase civic body’s own PCR machine to enable testing of throat swabs at the city’s KEM hospital.

“We will have a set-up similar to NIV that will save time and energy. As of now we are depending on Haffkine Institute and NIV for testing,” said Mhaiskar.

At present the civic body is spending Rs 5,000-7,000 to get a sample tested from other centres.

Also, by the end of October, civic hospitals mainly Nair, Sion and KEM hospitals will have in all 30 intensive care units.