Morning assembly meetings in schools should be dispensed with under new guidelines being issued by the Health Ministry soon to contain the spread of swine flu which also make it mandatory for class teachers to check each student for symptoms of the viral disease.
The guidelines is expected to be issued in a couple of days, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told a group of senior editors here on Monday.
Morning assembly in schools where students come in close contact could become a source for spread of the virus, Mr. Azad said.
"It is also being made mandatory for each teacher to go from seat to seat in the class to check for symptoms of flu, identify the student and immediately sent him or her back with the advice that they should stay at home for a week," he said.
Spelling out the steps being taken by the government to check spread of swine flu, he said a new vaccine is expected to be developed in the next five to seven months for which the World Health Organisation has given the seed from Atlanta-based Centre for Disease Control.
A new law was being readied to replace the century-old Epedemic Act to include more pandemic diseases in its list to effectively deal with such situations, he said.
Twenty-eight people have died due to swine flu in the country so far while over 1,700 have tested positive.
