Dr. VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog on Wednesday said the decision to reopen schools has to be taken cautiously amid the ongoing "unpredictable situation".
“School is a crowd, a medium or large gathering, which gives opportunity for virus to infect. So, we should take that risk only when we are rather better protected, virus is suppressed and we are able to sit at a distance. But it is not easy to take this decision to open schools when an unpredictable situation is prevalent," said Dr. VK Paul.
He also mentioned that the virus is suppressed at present due to discipline and restrictions prevalent in many states, however, if we ease restrictions and open schools, then the virus gets opportunities to infect.
Meanwhile, a total of 76 per cent parents are not ready to send their children to school till cases in their district go down to zero or children get vaccinated, said a survey.
According to a survey by Local Circles, the percentage of parents who will send their children to school has reduced from 69 per cent to 20 per cent in 4 months.
Moreover, with the second wave of COVID-19 seeing even children and infants getting infected with the coronavirus, in such a scenario, the resumption of schools according to medical experts may lead to an increase in the number of cases, particularly at the time the imminent threat of the third wave is expected to hit India in less than 2 months.
