Doctors, academicians write open letter to reopen primary schools

Delhi government directs private aided and unaided schools to vaccinate staff ahead of Sept 1 reopening for classes IX-XII

More than 55 people, including doctors, academicians and other professionals have written an open letter to all state Chief Ministers, Union Education Minister, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the National Disaster Management Authority demanding reopening of schools as soon as possible across the country. They also appealed that opening of primary schools must be given higher priority. The letter has been marked to the Prime Minister’s Office as well.

The letter says, “There is global evidence to support reopening of schools and the governments should urgently consider opening schools and resuming physical classes.” It said the aim of vaccination is to prevent severe illness and death, however, children are relatively at a low risk of severe or fatal Covid-19 infection.

Data from the US indicates that those under 25 years are at one-tenth the mortality risk from Covid-19 as compared to traffic accidents. Children are more likely to develop severe diseases from infections such as dengue. However, schools are not closed due to the risk from traffic accidents or dengue, the letter argued.

Further, 60 to 80 per cent of Indian children have had natural infections as per serosurveys. Vaccination of children is not a prerequisite to open schools. Nowhere in the world are children younger than 12 years being vaccinated but the schools remain open. Underlining the study that points out that schools do not contribute significantly to Covid-19 spread, the letter says, “Adults and children are free to go anywhere except schools and aggressive testing in non-school settings may also reveal positive results similar to schools.”

School staff to get vax

The Delhi government has directed private aided and unaided schools to vaccinate their teachers and staff ahead of the reopening for classes IX-XII from September 1. A circular was issued in this connection by the Directorate of Education of the city government. “It is the prime concern of Directorate of Education, GNCT of Delhi to ensure the vaccination of all teachers and staff working in schools of Delhi. Therefore, all the HOS/managers of private aided/unaided schools in Delhi, are hereby directed to ensure that their teachers and staff get vaccinated immediately,” it read. “In the above context, all the private aided/unaided schools are also advised to facilitate their teachers and staff by making special arrangements for vaccination at schools/cluster levels in consultation and coordination with concerned authorities,” the circular said.

MHA cautions states

Ahead of the festival season, the Centre on Saturday asked all states and union territories to ensure there is no large gathering and that they take pro-active measures to check the spread of Coronavirus. Extending the ongoing Covid-19 guidelines for one more month till September 30, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the overall pandemic situation now appears to be largely stable at the national level, except for the localised spread observed in a few states. The total number of active cases and high case positivity in some districts continue to remain a matter of concern, he told the chief secretaries of all states and UTs.

India logs 46.7k fresh cases

With 46,759 people testing positive for Covid-19 in a span of 24 hours, India’s infection tally rose to 3,26,49,947 on Saturday, while the count of active cases registered an increase for the fourth consecutive day, according to Union Health Ministry data. Kerala continues to report a record number of cases and logged 32,801 fresh infections. The death toll climbed to 4,37,370 with 509 fatalities.

Covaxin single-dose similar to 2 for unaffected

A single-dose of Covaxin provides a similar immunity response in previously Covid-infected people as those without previous history of infection with two vaccine doses, says Indian Council of Medical Research’s latest study. The antibody responses of individuals with confirmed pre-vaccination SARS-CoV-2  were compared with those without prior infection.

3,26,49,947
Total number of cases in the country as of Saturday

4,37,370
Total no. of deaths due to the virus in India

3,18,52,802
Patients recovered and discharged in india as of Saturday

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