As higher education institutions turn Covid clusters, Kerala to take final call on shutdown Thursday

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With a large number of higher education institutions in the state turning into Covid clusters, the government is understood to be in favour of shutting down colleges and reverting to online classes for the time being. A final decision will be taken after the high-level Covid assessment meeting to be chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday. 

Higher Education Minister R Bindu has hinted that the department is considering shutting down institutions of higher learning in the wake of rising cases. Already, principals have been directed to shut down institutions in case of formation of Covid clusters. 

A source with the Directorate of Health Services said there are 152 active institutional clusters in the state, which include a large number of colleges. Several of these clusters are in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam. Already many higher educational institutions in Thiruvananthapuram were shut down following the formation of Covid clusters. 

Meanwhile, there is ambiguity on the threshold limit for considering institutions as Covid clusters. Centre’s guidelines say an institution can be considered a cluster if there are more than two Covid cases. But in the wake of the spread of Omicron variant, the threshold for declaring an institution as cluster is set to be revised. 

Even as a new set of guidelines increasing the threshold for the institutional clusters is awaited, health officials in districts like Thiruvananthapuram have directed the Education Department to treat an institution as a cluster if there are five or more Covid cases who do not figure in the contact list of people outside the institution.