New Delhi: In this coronavirus pandemic time as the schools have reopened, at least 262 students and about 160 teachers have tested COVID positive in Andhra Pradesh in the past three days after educational institutes were reopened on November 2 for class 9 and 10 students.
Giving further details, Commissioner of School Education V Chinna Veerabhadrudu said the figure is not alarming when compared to the number of students attending the schools, though every care is being taken to ensure COVID-19 safety protocols are in place in every institution.
“Yesterday (November 4) around four lakh students attended schools. There were 262 positive cases. It is not even 0.1 per cent. It is not correct to say that they were affected due to their attendance to schools. We ensure that each school room has only 15 or 16 students,” he sad.
As per updates from the education department of the state, there are 9.75 lakh students registered for Class 9 and 10 in the state out of which 3.93 lakh attended. Moreover, out of 1.11 lakh teachers, over 99,000 thousand attended the educational institutions on Wednesday.
He further added that out of 1.11 lakh teachers, about 160 teachers tested positive and the lives of both students and teachers are important for the government.
The development comes after the government schools and colleges reopened in the state from November 2 for classes 9, 10 and intermediate. Classes 9 and 10 and Intermediate first and second year would function on alternate days only for half-a-day.
The state government had in an earlier notification said that classes 6, 7 and 8 would begin on November 23 while classes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 would start from December 14.
All the educational institutions have remained closed since March when the national lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 was announced.
The Commissioner of School Education also added that the attendance of students to schools was hovering about 40 per cent as parents are still apprehensive of the killer virus despite tight measures being taken by the government.
As per updates on November 3, Andhra Pradesh’s COVID-19 tally rose to 8.30 lakh even as the total recoveries crossed the eight lakh mark. As 2,849 fresh cases were added in 24 hours, the gross confirmed positives in the state touched 8,30,731. With 3,700 more patients getting cured of the infection, the overall recoveries increased to 8,02,325.
(With inputs from PTI)