Though most of the cases have been home isolated, but there is panic among parents as final exams of non-Board classes are set to begin from the first week of March and most schools are taking these exams in offline mode.
In the last six days, 200 new Covid cases of students as well as teachers have been reported in Punjab taking the total positive cases linked to schools to 923 since January 7.
Out of 195 new cases from February 22-27, a total of 152 are students and the rest 48 are teachers. With this, the total positive students’ number has reached 604, while 319 teachers have tested positive between January 7 and February 27.
Though most of the cases have been home isolated, but there is panic among parents as final exams of non-Board classes are set to begin from the first week of March and most schools are taking these exams in offline mode.
High positivity rate in Ludhiana
The positivity rate among schools is the highest in Ludhiana. The positivity rate in Punjab is 1.1 per cent, while in Ludhiana it is 3.1 per cent, followed by Bathinda at 2.9 per cent, while Nawanshahr’s positivity rate among schools is 2.7 per cent.
So far, 148 cases among students and teachers are from Ludhiana alone. Out of this, 95 are students and the rest 53 are teachers.
What has shocked parents more is that on Friday, a KG student from a Samrala school was tested positive while cases have also started coming from reputed private schools of the city as well.
In addition to this, a total of 397 cases have been reported from Nawanshahr alone out of which 350 are students and the rest 47 are teachers. However, on Saturday, only two new cases among students were reported from Nawanshahr.
In Bathinda, ten new cases (all teachers of government school in Bathinda city) were reported on Saturday taking the total Covid positive cases among teachers and students in Bathinda to 46 out of which 22 are students and 24 are teachers. Four teachers were tested positive in Amritsar on Saturday while one in Gurdaspur.
In Nawanshahr sampling has been done in 34 schools so far while in Ludhiana in 50 schools. In Bathinda, however, sampling has been done from 7 educational institutes.
Sandeep Kumar, Nodal officer for Covid-19 cases for Ludhiana, said, “Once a Covid case is reported from any educational institute, till the time sampling is not completed and even the results don’t come, that institute cannot open for educational purposes. These instructions apply to all schools/colleges whether they are private or government.”
However, sources revealed that rules are not that strict for private institutes and in case of less than 5 cases, they are opening the schools for students. Sandeep Kumar replying to this charge said, “District education officer will look into this issue.”
A parent, however, said: “In March, 2020 when there were hardly any Covid cases, schools were closed. But now when students are also being tested positive, schools are forcing students to come for compulsory offline exams and authorities are completely mum over this.”
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