BENGALURU: With all schools to reopen just a few days from now across Karnataka, parents are keeping their fingers crossed and health officials are on alert.
Experts say there will definitely be clusters of infection in schools, but people should not panic.
Instead, health authorities must check whether children are only testing positive for Covid-19 or falling ill too.
“Clusters are expected to occur in some districts, but what is important is each cluster has to be studied. Health authorities need to find out if these children are unwell. Falling sick and testing positive are not the same. We need to know how children are dealing with the infection. This data will help identify children with comorbidities and take quick decisions on vaccinating them,” said Dr Gagandeep Kang, microbiologist and virologist at Christian Medical College, Vellore.
Experts also say that schools should avoid any kind of ceremonious welcome like they did last time when classes for primary sections began.
“Social distance, masking and hygiene should not be forgotten. Any sort of crowding will lead to violation of Covid norms and increase the risk of getting Covid-19. This should not happen,” said Dr CN Manjunath, Director, Jayadeva Hospitals, and also member of the Technical Advisory Committee.
While most private schools had decided to wait till Deepavali was over, they have announced reopening of offline classes from November 8. School authorities are still cautious and have asked the younger children to attend classes for half a day and only two days a week.
“This will ensure that classes are not crowded. But schools need to tell parents to ensure that they do not violate Covid-19 norms in their households. Often, like in the case of a student testing positive in a private school in Basavanagudi recently, the child’s parents had tested positive which spread to the child,” said a senior doctor from TAC.
Health authorities have, however, decided to begin the third round of serosurvey next week, which will include children, to check the level of antibodies they have developed and also understand to what extent children are already infected by Covid-19.
In many states, seropositivity among children is above 50 per cent.
“It is important to have a balance when doing a sero survey among children in schools,” said Dr Kang.
Meanwhile, D Shashikumar, general secretary of the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS), said, “The government should instil confidence in parents to send their wards to school. Whatever loss children have undergone during the pandemic needs to be bridged. Children at pre-schools especially need to see, play and learn as it is important and contributes to the state’s literacy as well,” he explained.