A total of 30 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu out of which 20 are students and 10 are teachers after schools reopened in the state after almost one year on September 1.
According to a report, a boy and his parents with a recent history of travel to Bengaluru tested positive. Around 120 other students from the school are also being tested.
While reports of cases were being reported from September 3, on Tuesday, the most recent cases have been reported from a private school in Chennai.
State Health Minister Ma Subramanian said, "If students or teachers test positive in any school, the institution will be sealed immediately and sanitisation and other SOPs will be followed. Those infected with Covid will be given immediate medical help. Random tests will be conducted in schools across the state."
With the possibility of a third Covid wave, and children being considered most vulnerable, question is being raised whether reopening of schools was the right move.
Notably, the state education minister had also said that students can opt for online classes, after getting parental approval if they were worried about attending class physically during this pandemic time.
Dr. KR Malathy, Educationist, said, "The decision to reopen schools is good. The government has assured that all precautionary measures are being taken. As Dr. Soumya Swaminathan (WHO Chief scientist) said now Covid has entered the endemic stage in India and we have to live with it. Some people might get infected and that is something that we should take care of and just move ahead."
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu on Monday reported 1,556 new Covid-19 cases and 18 fatalities thereby pushing the overall tally to 26,24,234 and 35,036 respectively, said Department of Health.
A total of 1,564 people got discharged and 1,55,609 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 4,32,72,865 till date.
