Coronavirus | 39 SSLC students in Karnataka worried after two of their peers test positive

They are primary and secondary contacts of infected students; health of all students is being monitored and throat swabs have been sent for testing

A student walks past a display board at an SSLC examination centre; (right) bell being rung for students to get ready for the maths exam at Sadashivanagar in Bengaluru on Saturday.

Around 39 class 10 students, in the middle of public examination, are worried not just about their academic performance but also about whether they will get COVID-19. They are primary and secondary contacts of two of their peers — one from Arkalgud taluk in Hassan district and the other from Laxmeshwar, Gadag district — who tested positive after the exam began on Thursday.

An Education Department official said that the student from Hassan was allowed to write the exam along with other students, but in isolation, as he had no symptoms of the infection. “Thermal screening was done as he reached the examination centre. His body temperature was normal. However, he got to know about his test result later,” he said.

‘No symptoms’

When asked why he was not asked to sit in a separate room at the outset, as his throat swab was collected for laboratory test after he had suffered from dengue, Hassan Deputy Commissioner only repeated that he had no symptoms. However, he added that he would look into it to see if there is a case of negligence.

While the student from Hassan, who tested positive on Saturday, will not write the examination that is to follow, the health of 18 other students in the same classroom is being monitored and their swabs have been sent for testing. Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar said that a decision on whether the other students will be allowed to write the remaining exams will be taken after health experts submit a report. The entire examination centre has been sanitised.

Supplementary exam

However, students in Laxmeshwar, Gadag district, who wrote the paper with the classmate who tested positive on June 25, have been asked to appear for the supplementary examination, said Mr. Suresh Kumar. This, even though it is not known if they have contracted COVID-19.

 

All these students stay together in a residential facility. Two students who are primary contacts and 19 students who are secondary contacts have been quarantined. These are not the only instances that have the government on high alert.

Official too

In another incident, an official who was on SSLC examination duty in Pavagada, Tumakuru, tested positive on Thursday. Following this, all the invigilators in the centre have been asked to undergo quarantine.

Sources in the examination centre said that the official did not come in contact with the students and had only visited the designated school on Thursday. However, he attended examination duty on June 22 even though his sample was sent for testing on June 22.

In another case, a student who wrote the examination on June 25 at a centre in Channarayapatna taluk has been quarantined after her grandmother tested positive.

Meanwhile, 97.93% of the total 8.08 lakh students who registered for the mathematics examination appeared on Saturday.