No vaccination for kids as of now: Jalandhar DC

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 30

Since the pandemic seems far from still being over and the governments have no plans to administer vaccination to children, it’s being guessed that at least the first half of the next session of schools and colleges may be held online.

Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori during an interaction with mediapersons said the first ones to be vaccinated by January end would be 12,000-plus healthcare workers in Jalandhar. He also specified that next on priority would be residents above the age of 50, especially those with co-morbidities. All these cases would have to be given double or triple shots depending on the vaccine finalised by the Centre.

He said so far, there was no plan to administer vaccine to the ones less than 50 years as nearly 27 crore population in India would be covered in the above 50 years bracket. He clearly specified that there was no plan to vaccinate children as of now.

This means that schoolgoing children and collegiates would not be vaccinated in the near future. In such a scenario, school authorities feel that they would have to continue with online sessions at least till July 2021.

Ritu Kaul, Principal, Delhi Public School, said, “It is a very dicey situation. We are on a wait and watch mode. Regular classes may not be possible till June or July. We are also waiting for the CBSE directions to be released alongwith the datesheet for the Class X, XII students. We want that at least 60-day classes should be conducted for students appearing for board exams, but this will depend on new standard operating procedures to be issued by the CBSE.”

She said, “We have been attending all the CBSE workshops. We have also invited parents to school for parent-teacher meets. They were satisfied with provisions for Covid safety that we have been taking. Ultimately, we will have to follow the directions of the CBSE. As of now, I do not think that primary classes will be called in any time soon.”

Innocent Hearts School Principal Rajeev Palival said, “Nothing is clear about the Covid situation as of now. We also do not know how effective the vaccination will be and whether children will be administered vaccine or not. We really do not know when normal schooling will start. Children are pretty much excited to rejoin schools, but parents are apprehensive. No matter how hard we try, something is amiss in online classes. Virtual education cannot be compared with classroom teaching in terms of attention, retention and understanding. We will follow whatever way the CBSE or the state government guides us.”

2 die, 16 positive in Hoshiarpur

Hoshiarpur: As many as 16 new Covid positive patients were traced in the district on Wednesday increasing the district tally to 7,719. Due to the death of two more patients, the toll also increased to 310. Civil Surgeon Dr Jasvir Singh said 1,098 new samples were taken on Wednesday from people with suspected flu-like symptoms. The reports of 1,086 samples were received on Wednesday, of which 16 were positive. The total number of samples taken in the district so far has gone up to 2,33,025, whereas according to reports received from the lab, 2,24,733 samples were negative, while the reports of 2,178 samples were still awaited and 149 samples were invalid. The number of active cases is 118, while the number of patients who have recovered, has increased to 7,291. Out of today’s 16 positive cases, four cases were from Hoshiarpur city, while the rest of them were from various other health blocks. OC