Omicron cluster in school: Karnataka TAC directive was thrown to the wind

Ten days before Karnataka announced the first paediatric cluster in an educational institution, the state's Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) had given separate recommendations for boarding and residential schools in the backdrop of the Omicron threat and the mushrooming of Covid clusters in schools.

On Saturday, Karnataka declared its first paediatric Omicron cluster in a government residential school in Dakshina Kannada. The four teenage schoolgirls detected with Omicron variant living in the hostel have recovered and begun attending classes, said Dakshina Kannada district health officials.

To avert such clusters, the TAC had recommended that at entry, all shall be screened for Covid symptoms, hand sanitiser applied, thermal scanning done, and physical distance of at least one metre/three feet ensured throughout.

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There shall be strict compliance to the Covid-appropriate behaviour throughout like compulsory face masking while in common areas, the physical distancing of at least one metre, hand and respiratory hygiene and indoor natural ventilation, etc.

There shall be restrictions on visitors to ensure the CAB during visiting hours. All staff, teachers and students over 18 years of age should have received two doses of Covid-19 vaccination, the TAC had recommended.

All the symptomatic shall be immediately isolated in a separate designated room and referred for testing by RAT initially and if negative, followed by RT-PCR compulsorily, as per the ICMR protocol.

If there are three or more than 2% of students attending classes test positive, then the respective classes should be suspended for a week, the students isolated and treated in an institutional facility under supervision. All primary and secondary contacts shall compulsorily be tested by RT-PCR.

If there are more than 15 cases in a school, then the school shall be closed for a day and thoroughly sanitised. After the testing of all primary and secondary contacts, isolation and management of the cases, the school may be reopened after a week. The classroom(s) shall be disinfected using 1% sodium hypochlorite solution, and the objects & surfaces with 0.5% Lysol.

The classroom(s) shall be ready to use after 24 hours. If the CT value of the RT-PCR is less than 25, then such samples on such suspicion for omicron shall be subjected to genomic sequencing.

In the boarding school, the warden, kitchen staff and other staff shall be asymptomatic and undergo RT-PCR tests weekly. There shall be staggered boarding timings to ensure CAB in the dining hall. The bath and toilets shall be disinfected twice daily viz. morning and evening, using 1% sodium hypochlorite solution.

Two per cent of students shall be randomly tested in a week by the RT-PCR test as a part of special surveillance.

If the weekly TPR of the taluka/district exceeds 2%, then the school shall be closed and online classes conducted till the TPR is less than 1%. In all boarding schools, there shall be one designated isolation room for keeping symptomatic till the RT-PCR results are received.

There shall be one monitoring team at the taluka level consisting of one officer each from the departments of education and health that shall regularly visit the schools and ensure compliance of SoP.

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