Punjab: Week after schools reopen, 27 students test positive for COVID19
It's not just in India that the schools have opened or are about to reopen after a year of suspension in the coming days, classroom in the US have begun to have the school children back amidst the fear of a surge in COVID19 cases. Details here.
The four schools would remain shut for 14 days in order to ensure that in the infection doesn't spread further. Photo: Creative Commons
As many as 27 students have tested COVID19 positive in five government schools in Punjab’s Ludhiana, Abohar, Nawanshahr and Amritsar districts. The cases are being reported merely a week after the schools have been reopened, more than year after they were shut in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak last year.
The schools in Punjab were reopened on August 2.
Senior Medical Officer Gagandeep Singh told the press that testing camps were being organised on the instructions of the health department and tests would be carried out in all schools in the coming days. “If teachers/parents find any child sick, they must get him/her tested so that the third wave can be prevented. The teaching and non-teaching staff members who have not got vaccinated so far, must visit vaccine centres soon,” he was quoted as saying.
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Also, the principals of these four schools informed the media that the schools would remain shut for 14 days in order to ensure that in the infection doesn’t spread further.
Schools reopen in United States as well
It’s not just in India that the schools have opened or are about to reopen after a year of suspension in the coming days, classroom in the US have begun to have the school children back amidst the fear of a surge in COVID19 cases.
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Public health professionals are criticising the decision to reopen the school even as the COVID19 cases continue to spread in America.
Mark Kline, Physician-in-chief of Children’s Hospital New Orleans told CNN, “I think bringing together large numbers of children, congregating them in classrooms with masks being optional — or worse yet even, forbidden — is just a formula for disaster”.
The CNN report also highlighted that just over half of the total population is fully vaccinated, while about 31 per cent of the vaccine-eligible population has not been vaccinated yet.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, large swath of the population is still unvaccinated in the US. With an average of more than 116,600 new COVID19 cases per day, it’s the highest in about six months.
Meanwhile, Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, World Health Organization, pointed out yesterday, on August 10, that the schools should priorities on physical distancing and other preventive measures to ensure that the children don’t live with long-term adverse effects of COVID19.
“The impact on children’s mental, physical and cognitive wellbeing will last a long time. School openings must be prioritized with distancing, masking, avoiding indoor singing and gatherings, hand hygiene & vaccination of all adults,” Swaminathan stated.
India reported 38,353 new COVID19 cases in the last 24 hours, the country’s overall tally increased to 32.04 million (the second-highest worldwide after the United States). India’s COVID19 death toll has climbed to 429,179 with 497 fresh fatalities. The active cases in the country now account for 1.21 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020.