60 students of Bengaluru boarding school test positive for COVID-19
At least 60 students from a boarding school in Bengaluru have tested positive for the coronavirus, fueling concerns about children returning to offline studies. Most of the infected students at Sri Chaitanya Girls' Residential School are asymptomatic and have been quarantined on school campus. The school, that had resumed physical classes on September 5, has now been shut for several weeks.
One of the students has been hospitalized
Of the infected students, one had high fever and has been admitted to Lady Curzon and Bowring Hospital while another is under home quarantine. The remaining students are isolated on the campus. They are being cared for by staff members from a private health facility, officials said. The school is now closed until at least October 20.
First positive case was detected on September 26
There are 485 students in the hostel and 57 staff members, including 22 teachers. The staffers were reportedly fully vaccinated. On September 26, a student, said to be from Ballari district, started developing COVID-19 symptoms, including fever, vomiting, and diarrhoea. She was then tested and found infected with the virus. The school tested all the other students the next day.
Students would be retested in the coming days
Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner J Manjunath said 14 of the infected students are from Tamil Nadu while the remaining are from various districts of Karnataka. A retest would be conducted on the seventh day and then on October 20, the official added.
Several measures in place to prevent future outbreaks
Several measures have been taken to prevent future outbreaks. The maximum number of students who can share a room has been reduced to two from the earlier limit of four. The authorities have completed sanitizing the campus, officials said, adding that online classes may be restarted soon. However, parents of several students have requested to take them back home.
State government allowed physical classes with full occupancy
The Karnataka government had allowed physical classes with 100 percent occupancy, last week. However, the Bengaluru incident and other, smaller COVID-19 clusters at schools have triggered concerns over the decision. Even though India has administered more than 86 crore vaccine doses, there is no approved COVID-19 jab for children yet. There are also concerns over a possible third wave of the pandemic.
