Students attend classes in New Delhi. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal) As Covid-19 cases once again rise in Delhi, some teachers have been put on Covid-19 duty despite schools operating in full swing now. For instance, 30 teachers, including 5 post-graduate-trained (PGT) teachers who teach senior secondary classes, have been requisitioned for Covid duties in Shahdara district, according to officials.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, school teachers have been deputed to various Covid-related duties and during the second wave, most teachers were involved in some form of these works or the other like contact tracing or shifts at places like airports, vaccination centres, oxygen centres.
When schools started preparations to resume offline teaching fully from this month, the education department had earlier asked all teachers to report back to their schools for work focusing on foundational learning for younger students and board examination preparation for senior students.
However, with the ongoing spike in cases, teachers are once again being called for “performing Covid-19 duties and maintaining Covid-appropriate behaviors”.
Meanwhile, Delhi on Saturday reported 1,094 fresh Covid-19 cases at a test positivity rate of 4.82 per cent and two deaths. The number of active cases stood at 3,705. Amid a spike in cases, the Delhi government made masks in public places mandatory again. This was after the number of cases went up from over 200 to over 1,000 within nine days.
To counter the surge, the government has decided to ramp up testing and deploy testing teams in markets and transit points such as railway stations and inter-state bus terminals. Directions have also been issued to all government hospitals and dispensaries to mandatorily test everyone coming in with flu-like symptoms.
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