Chandigarh, August 5:Keeping in view of re-opening of schools after the second wave of SARS-CoV-2,the Health Minister Mr. Balbir Singh Sidhu on Thursday directed all the CivilSurgeons to ensure COVID-19 Surveillance in Schools as per SOPs recommended bythe committee of experts.
The Health Ministersaid that to prevent any major outbreak of COVID-19 among children in schools,instructions have been issued to all the Civil Surgeons to prepare a micro-planwhich provides data of suspected cases and COVID tests to be conducted in theirrespective districts.
Mr. Sidhu said thatit is responsibility of schools management to educate their teachers, staff andstudents on COVID-19 prevention measures. He said that schools must develop aschedule for daily cleaning and disinfection of the school environment,facilities and frequently touched surfaces, and ensure availability of handhygiene.
He said that schoolsshould enforce the policy of “staying home if unwell” and also ensure studentsor staffs who have been in contact with a COVID-19 case to stay home for 14days. However, physical distancing of at least 6 feet between individuals canbe maintained by spacing of desks, staging recesses, breaks and lunch breaks;limiting the mixing of classes and of age groups; considering smaller classesor alternating attendance schedules, and ensuring good ventilation inclassrooms, frequent hand and respiratory hygiene, and environmental cleaningmeasures should be in place to limit exposure.
Mr. Sidhu clarifiedthat class must be suspended and quarantined for 14 days if one COVID-19 caseis confirmed and school must be suspended for 14 days if two or more than twoCOVID-19 cases are detected. He said that if one-third of the schools in a cityor town or block are closed then all schools in that geography must be closed.
Referring to thenecessary prevention measures, Mr. Sidhu said that students and staff should bescreened by non-contact thermometers at entry and exit points on routine basisand syndromic surveillance must be carried out for Influenza like illness todetect suspected COVID-19 cases. He said that suspected cases should be senthome and tested for COVID-19 and they should not be allowed to come to theschool until tested negative or symptoms get resolved. If tested positive,he/she should be isolated and treated as per COVID-19 treatment protocol.
The Health Ministeradded that contact tracing and their testing should be conducted as per theCOVID-19 protocols and absent students must be contacted by the class teacherfor enquiring about the symptoms of Influenza like illness. He said that if thenumber of students with influenza like illness who are absent or sent homereaches 5% of the total school attendance on a given day, local healthauthorities must be alerted for suspected outbreak or if from same class, threeor more students with influenza like illness are absent or sent home on a givenday, local health authorities must be alerted for suspected outbreak.
Mr. Sidhu said thatthe probability that a single case or more than one case becomes an outbreakdepends upon how strictly the school follows mitigation/preventive measures. Hesaid that a nodal officer must be appointed in the school who will compile the screeningdata of whole school like the number of suspected cases detected, number ofsuspected cases tested, number of suspected cases tested positive etc. He/shewill share a daily report with the district administration.
Pointing out theimportance of testing Strategy for reducing the COVID-19 transmission amongchildren, he said that the first priority of testing strategy is to ensure thataccess to Rapid Antigen Testing & RTPCR Testing should be available for anystudent or school staff showing symptoms of COVID-19. He said that since takingnasopharyngeal samples from the children need special skills, schooladministration must identify the local testing centers for testing children& staff.
Mr. Sidhu said thatschools have a positive impact not only on education but also on health anddevelopment thereby Punjab Government has allowed students to complete theirstudies and also have access to nutrition services (mid-day meal), andopportunity for enjoying social relationships with their peers.