Noida school shut after 10 students attend party thrown by coronavirus patient

The Kerala government last month had asked people under quarantine to postpone wedding and other functions and not to attend any public events.
Noida school shut after 10 students attend party thrown by coronavirus patient
Noida school shut after 10 students attend party thrown by coronavirus patient
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Just a day after two new cases of coronavirus were discovered in India – in Delhi and in Hyderabad – a school in Noida has reportedly closed down after many of its students attended a birthday party thrown by the person who has tested positive for coronavirus.

Journalist Bhupendra Chaubey tweeted on Tuesday morning that a big school in Noida has shut down over fears of many people having been exposed to the disease as a result of them attending the birthday party.

According to The Quint, the parent community in the school decided not to send their children to the school after they came to know about the father of the child whose birthday party it was had tested positive for the disease. He is reportedly receiving treatment now at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi.

The Ministry of Health meanwhile has also reached out to those who attended the birthday party and will conduct tests. They have all reportedly been told to quarantine themselves for a fortnight. Reports from Noida say that the school is being fumigated.

While the school itself has not given an official statement, it has reportedly postponed exams that were scheduled. A circular by the school added that the board exams would continue as per usual, and that students of classes 7 to 11 could come for extra classes if they wanted. Meanwhile, class 6 and IGCSE classes will continue with the study leave, the circular said.

It came to light on Monday that a person in Delhi had tested positive for coronavirus; he had a travel history to Italy, where at least 52 people have succumbed to the disease. The second Indian who was found to have tested positive in Telangana is a techie from Bengaluru. Colleagues of this patients have been asked by the government to quarantine themselves at home.

The developments in Noida come even as the government of Kerala, where the first positive cases of COVID-19 had emerged in last January and early February had asked people to exercise caution. All three patients who tested positive in Kerala recovered.

The Kerala government at the time had advised people who had a travel history to affected countries (China at that point of time) to stay away from closely mingling with people, and not to go to public places. “These things should be specially taken care of if there are pregnant women, children or some other patients in the house,” an official communication from the Ernakulam district medical officer had said. The government had asked people under quarantine to postpone wedding and other functions and not to attend any public events as well. 

After the three positive coronavirus cases were found in Kerala, the state also placed hundreds of people under observation as a precaution.

The state Health Minister KK Shailaja had said, “Those people who arrive from countries where coronavirus cases were very high, should continue to remain at their homes and should avoid interaction with the public.”

Further, the United States Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) has also recommended a 14-day quarantine period for people who have travelled to counties where COVID-19 cases have been reported. Read TNM’s explainer on how quarantine aims to restrain the spread of coronavirus here.

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