Shut wing if student tests Covid positive: Delhi education department issues SOPs for schools

The DDMA, which recently witnessed a spike in cases throughout the city and brought back the mandatory mask mandate, decided to keep schools and other educational institutes open. Following this, the DOE has issued an SOP to schools to maximise the safety of students and staff.

This SOP is largely a reiteration of guidelines already issued to schools in Delhi through their various phases of reopening since January 2021, such as ensuring regular sanitisation and masking; discouraging sharing of lunch, books and stationery; thermal scanning and hand sanitisation on entry; using all entries and exits to the school to avoid crowding at the time of entry and exit.

In line with an advisory issued last week, the SOP also states that if any case is reported among students and staff, this must be reported to zonal or district authorities immediately, and “the wing concerned of the school may be temporarily closed or cordoned off”.

The guidelines state that parents should be advised not to send their children to school if the child or any family members show Covid symptoms and teachers have also been directed to ask students about symptoms they have or in any family members every morning during attendance.

Like previous SOPs, schools have been asked to ensure the availability of a quarantine room on the premises. If a student or staff member displays any symptoms such as fever, chills, cough, fatigue, sore throat or a headache during school hours, schools have been directed to move them to an outdoor space or the quarantine room.  The department has also directed school management committees and parent-teacher associations to encourage vaccination among students and parents.

Schools across Delhi are currently operating at full capacity but they have still been told to “maintain physical distancing at all times by ensuring that students do not assemble or gather near entry/exit gates while visiting the school.”