Nine students studying in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) school in Jogupalya here have tested positive for COVID-19. Following this, the school has been declared as a cluster by the civic body, and will remain closed for 5 days.
According to information made available, the students, who are asymptomatic, have been admitted to HAL’s COVID-19 Care Centre.
There are a total of 51 students studying in the school, of whom 2 from 8th standard, 4 from 9th standard and 3 from 10th standard tested positive. The students were tested by the civic body on March 24.
The BBMP personnel visited their homes on Friday to assess if they could be isolated at home. “However, students in BBMP schools belong to lower socio-economic groups. Their houses are not equipped for home isolation. We convinced the parents and have shifted all the students who tested positive to the HAL COVID-19 Care Centre,” said K.R. Pallavi, BBMP’s Joint Commissioner (East).
After 9 students tested positive, the civic body collected swabs from 89 persons, including students, teaching and non-teaching staff once again to be tested. Primary and secondary contacts of these students are being traced and those who have already been traced have been isolated. They too will be tested, it is said.
The civic body has already sanitised the school premises. “We will discuss with the education officials and decide when the school can be re-opened, since revision classes are being held for students appearing for the SSLC examination,” she added.
Meanwhile, the BBMP has now decided to test all students, teaching and non-teaching staff, in its educational institutions. The RT-PCR test will be conducted once every 15 days, it is said.
There are a total of 13,839 students in BBMP’s 33 high schools, 14 Pre-University Colleges, 4 degree colleges, 15 primary schools and 90 nurseries.
