At least 27 students from Class 9 and 10 who had been attending government schools in Vizianagaram district have tested positive for coronavirus, prompting authorities to shut down the schools for a week starting from Monday. As of Saturday, 18 students from the Zilla Parishad High School (ZPHS) in Gantyada mandal, and 9 students from the ZPHS in Dattirajeru mandal, have tested positive for coronavirus.
Schools in Andhra Pradesh were partially reopened for students of Class 9 and 10 around two weeks ago, with the lockdown rules for school relaxed by the Union government as part of Unlock 4.0. Students of classes 9 and 10 are now allowed to attend school to meet teachers and have any doubts cleared in person.
Vizianagaram District Education Officer Nagamani has instructed school authorities to close the affected schools for a week. Further steps will be taken depending on the situation after a week, the DEO said.
According to Gantyada Mandal Education Officer (MEO) Vijayalakshmi, the students from the Gantyada school are asymptomatic. The tests were conducted as part of routine checks across the district, she said. “The tests were conducted on September 30, and 73 students were tested. The results came back on Saturday, and 9 boys and 9 girls have tested positive. Parents are a little apprehensive about sending their children to the hospital, but medical care is being provided to them,” she said. According to reports, none of the teachers who were tested in Gantyada were found to have contracted the disease.
Dattirajeru MEO Venkat Rao said that of the 80 students tested at the ZPHS in Datti village, one student from class 10 and 8 students from class 9 tested positive. All of these students have been sent to a quarantine centre, he said.
Parents of the affected students will also now be tested, according to reports. Vizianagaram District Collector M Hari Jawaharlal told Times of India that the tests were conducted as there were a few active COVID-19 clusters in the Gantyada region.
In another instance that came to light on Friday, around 13 children tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Bhatluru village of Guntur district in the state. The children had attended tuition class at the home of a private instructor. The incident came to light after tests were conducted on several local residents, after a COVID-19 death was reported in the village a few days ago.