8,500 candidates to appear for nursing exam in Punjab

Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service
Faridkot, June 19 

Nearly 8,500 candidates appearing for an exam for the post of nursing staff in government hospitals will wear masks and undergo thermal screening at 84 exam centres in Punjab on Sunday.

Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), which is conducting this written test, has decided to set up a separate exam centre for every candidate who is a confirmed or suspected Covid-19  case.

In one such case, the university has already announced to set an exam centre in the isolation ward of a hospital where a candidate with coronavirus is under treatment.

The medical university has sent a message to the exam centres that if during the thermal screening at the entry point of the centres, any candidate has any symptom of COVID-19, he/she will not be allowed the entry into the exam centre. Rather a separate exam centre will be established for such candidate.

“Due to Covid-19, we will not allow any candidate to miss the chance of writing the test under any circumstances,” said Dr Raj Bahadur, vice-chancellor, BFUHS.

Given the situation due to COVID-19, candidates cannot exchange pens and other instruments with others. Adhering to the strict compliance of social distancing norms, the medical university has deputed one supervisory staff for every 12 candidates in place of 24 candidates.

There are 84 exam centres and every centre will have about 100 candidates.

“To ensure social distancing among the candidates, we are making about double expenditure in conducting this test by engaging about 700 supervisory staff against 350,” said an officer associated with the conducting of the test.

Wearing masks is mandatory while appearing for the examination. Maintaining social distancing of minimum 4-6 feet is compulsory. Candidates are allowed to carry drinking water during the examination as it will not be provided at the centre due to Covid-19 scare.

Every candidate with mild flu-like symptoms would be seated in a separate room and all candidates will be sanitized as some candidates may come from hotspots and other states. There would be less interaction between the candidates and supervisory staff and the exam centres and furniture would be disinfected, he said.

“Once the students reach the exam centre, they must not mingle as was the usual practice but maintain social distancing.

All candidates need to download e pass from the state government COVA app to reach their exam centres.