Odisha Issues New Guidelines For Schools, Makes Physical Attendance Optional

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Wednesday issued new guidelines to prevent the spread of coronavirus in schools. The new guideline issued is aimed at explicit enforcement of COVID norms in schools amid a rise in infections among children. So far, out of 762 new cases, a total of 102 children in the age group 0-18 have been tested positive for coronavirus. There has been a one-minute drop in the infection rate among children since Tuesday (September 7). The infection rates among children on Tuesday and Wednesday (September 8) are 14.57 and 13.38 respectively. Also read- Big relief for primary school teachers, Gujarat cancels 8-hour shift order

New guidelines have been issued by the Department of School and Mass Education on Tuesday after some children and a teacher in Dhenkanal and Bargarh districts tested positive for COVID-19 infection. With 29 districts reporting fresh Covid infections, the state’s total caseload now stands at 10,13,567. The death toll has risen to 8,070 with the latest eight deaths, a health official said. Also read- Decision will be taken in DDMA meeting on reopening Delhi schools for class 6-8: Manish Sisodia

New guidelines to prevent infection Also read- Jammu and Kashmir issued new COVID guidelines, allowing reopening of schools for classes 10, 12; Night curfew will continue

• A COVID Monitor, preferably PET of the school, will have to ensure strict adherence to social distancing norms. Any student, teacher or employee showing even mild symptoms should refrain from entering the schools. The notification further states that thermal screening and availability of sanitisers should be ensured at the entrance.
• It said that students, teachers and other staff will have to compulsorily wear masks to enter the schools where classes are going on for students of classes 9, 10 and 12.
• No student should be forced to attend physical classes. Both offline and online classes will continue. The second wave of the pandemic has claimed the lives of 39 children, with 13 deaths between August 10 and 31.

Of the 762 new cases, a total of 443 were recorded in the quarantine centres, while 319 infections were traced through contact tracing. Khurda district recorded 314 cases, making it the highest number of Covid cases. Cuttack recorded a total of 119 Covid cases. Boudh did not report any fresh cases. Dhenkanal and Khurda districts recorded two fresh deaths each, while Angul, Balasore, Keonjhar and Koraput reported one death each. So far 53 patients have died due to comorbidities.

Odisha COVID Updates

Odisha now has 6,853 active cases. Khurda remains in the “Red Zone”, in which 2,617 patients are still infected with the disease. So far 9,98,591 people have recovered from the infection in the state, including 801 people on Tuesday. The state has so far tested over 1.85 crore samples for COVID-19, including 64,602 as on Tuesday. The daily test positivity rate was 1.17 per cent. The administration has vaccinated more than 2.42 crore people, of which 59.98 lakh have been fully vaccinated.