No COVID clusters yet in schools in Ernakulam, say officials

Managements told to improve vaccination coverage

Nearly 30% of the teenagers in schools under the General Education department in Ernakulam have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as the authorities stated that no school-based cluster has been reported yet in the district.

However, there has been an increase in number of students and teachers getting infected following the spike in the number of daily cases from the first week of January. Around 190 students have been tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 while the corresponding number of teachers and non-teaching staff is around 100 in schools under the General Education department after the offline sessions resumed from November 1 onwards, according to official estimates.

Honey G. Alexaner, Deputy Director of the department, Ernakulam, said that there were only a few cases of infection among students and teachers in November and December. “The surge was witnessed from the first week of January as the number of students and teachers shot up compared to the previous months,” she said.

Meeting held

A meeting of the representatives of schools and parent-teacher associations concerned was held in the district on Tuesday to chalk out the measures to be initiated amidst the worsening pandemic situation. Vaccination coverage has to be stepped up without delay, it said.

Schools have been told to speed up the process by improving the coverage by the end of January, according to the General Education department.

Schools having about 500 students under the target group can organise vaccination camps on the campus itself. Managements can seek the help of the Health department for organising camps.

Even though offline sessions for children up to Class 9 have been suspended, the physical mode of learning will continue for students in Classes 10, 11, and 12 in view of the vaccination for teenagers.