Days after the resumption of physical classes for Classes 9 to 12 in the state, Karnataka’s COVID-19 technical advisory committee (TAC) has advised the state government to reopen physical classes for students of Class six to eight from September 13. Earlier, Chief Minister Basaaraj Bommai had announced that the decision on reopening schools for lower primary students will be taken by the end of August.
According to a report in The Hindu, a meeting was held by Chief Minister Bommai on Thursday, August 26, about the reopening with the TAC. In the meeting, the TAC suggested waiting for three weeks before reopening schools for Class 6-8 students as it would provide three weeks’ time to study the effects of the current reopening of Classes 9 to 12.
The TAC has recommended that random RT-PCR tests must be conducted in schools weekly consisting of 10% of the students. With the test, the positivity rate has to be monitored. Additionally, according to the Hindu, the TAC report said that if the positivity rate went beyond two percent, the schools had to be closed for a week and sanitized. The report also says that other actions including testing of all the contacts has to be done.
According to a report in Deccan Herald, responses of schools, parents, teachers, will be taken into account to decide on further reopening of schools on the basis of the number of students testing positive as well as taking into account positive cases and the severity of the infection and its management.
A non-TAC source told Deccan Herald that the recommendation was made after seeing that the reopening of physical classes for grades 9-12 had happened following the SOP and both students and teachers are following all the protocols. They added that it is a good sign that though some students were infected with coronavirus, none had to be hospitalized.