Hostels a concern, but schools will remain open: Rajasthan health minister

JAIPUR: While taking charge as health minister on Wednesday, Parsadi Lal Meena gave a clean chit to schools over the recent spike in Covid-19 infection among students, but raised concerns on whether the hostels were following the protocol.
A private school hostel had reported 12 Covid cases on Tuesday. Reacting to it, Meena said that the schools had reopened following guidelines issued by the Centre.
“We took time to reopen the schools. We followed Centre’s guidelines for it and also provided relaxations following it. We have not taken any step other than the Centre’s guidelines. We have received complaints about schools, but it is actually about hostels. We have to investigate if children staying in hostels are following distancing norms or not, or what kind of management do hostels have and present a report,” said Meena.
Schools and colleges opened with 100 % capacity in the state on November 15.
“Schools will continue to remain open. But collectors, SDMs and education department officials will first examine the facilities at hostels and ensure that the children staying there are following distancing norms. They will examine cleanliness and give NOCs. For hostels, both government or private, we will ask collectors to issue NOCs. For that, we will request the education minister. The schools are functioning well,” Meena said.
He said that an investigation was on. “We will first see the investigation report. If schools were negligent, if children came from outside to the hostel or if RT-PCR tests were done or not. All these issues will come out in the report. If we find carelessness, we will certainly take action,” he said.