Panic in Karnataka as 34 students test Covid-19 positive

At a time when the government is debating whether to reopen schools or not amid a spike in Covid-19 cases, 34 students attending classes under the Vidyagama programme in Belagavi and Kalaburagi tested positive for the virus.

While 30 of these students belong to the Government Kannada Primary School at M Timmapur village in Ramdurg taluk in Belagavi, the rest are students of a model primary school at Mashal village of Afzalpur taluk of Kalaburagi.

Vidyagama is a scheme launched by the Education Department to reach out to government school children during the pandemic.

The school in Belagavi has 195 students in the lower primary section and teachers under the Vidyagama programme of the Department of Public Instruction had been conducting classes at three temples with 10 to 15 students in each batch.

On learning about the incident, residents confronted the teachers and barred them from entering the village. They blamed the lack of precautions for students getting infected. BEO Mallikarjun Alase told DH that random Covid-19 tests had been conducted in the village on October 4, and 30 students tested positive and were symptomatic. In all, six adults including teachers too have tested positive.

The students who tested positive were from second, third and fourth standards hailing from three places while other students have not been infected.

Deputy Director of Public Instruction A B Pundalik said he had no information of the incident but said an inquiry would be ordered to check whether Covid-19 protocols were flouted.

In Kalaburagi, block education officer Chitrashekhar Degalamadi said the school has 865 students and 21 teachers. Classes under Vidyagama scheme are being conducted at 19 locations. Random tests for Covid-19 for 203 students and teachers was conducted September 22. Of them, four students tested positive. Samples of 24 students and four teachers were taken on October 5 and reports are awaited, the BEO explained.

Following the incident, classes under the Vidyagama scheme were stopped till the further orders. A teacher of the same school had earlier tested positive for the virus but had not handled classes at the locations where the four students tested positive. The health department will trace the source of infection, the BEO said.