As COVID cases rise in Delhi, private school temporarily suspends classes after student, teacher test positive

A student and a teacher at a school in Delhi have tested positive for Covid, following which all classmates of the affected student have been sent home, reported news agency ANI.

This came a day after some schools in Noida and Ghaziabad temporarily moved to online classes after students tested positive for Covid. Schools in Delhi, however, said that they want to avoid closing the whole school in case of such an eventuality and will focus on monitoring and isolation.

Twenty-three students from four schools in Uttar Pradesh's Noida, and neighbouring Delhi, have tested positive for the coronavirus in the last three days.

In Noida, at least 16 Covid-19 cases -- 13 students and three teachers -- were detected till Monday in a school in Sector 40, after the first case was reported on April 6. The school will return to offline classes on April 18.

A Vaishali-based private school stopped classes after three students were found to be Covid-positive in the last 24 hours. Another Ghaziabad private school closed on Saturday after a 13-year-old boy tested positive. The boy had not received any vaccine dose, said officials.

Covid cases in Delhi are increasing rapidly again, with the health department reporting 299 cases on Wednesday at a positivity rate of 2.49 per cent. Delhi had reported 304 cases on March 4 after which a swift decline was seen. In total, over the past two days, the city has recorded 501 new cases, with the active case count rising to 814.