Fully vaccinated staff should teach in schools, colleges: Punjab CM

Chandigarh, August 14

Amid reports of Covid cases in schools, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has directed that only fully vaccinated teaching and non-teaching staff, or those recently recovered from Covid, should physically teach in schools and colleges, with online learning option to remain available to all children.

He further ordered prioritisation of teachers and non-teaching staff for vaccination, with special camps to be held to ensure that all are covered with the first dose within this month and those due for the second dose to be also prioritised.

The Chief Minister has ordered at least 10,000 test samples of students and staff from schools to be undertaken every day. Districts/cities where positivity is above 0.2 % have been asked to shut down physical education for classes IV and below until the situation improves.

On schools, which have recently reopened for certain classes in the state, the Chief Minister said while there were some reports of high positivity in schools, the fact was that intensive testing had shown that the positivity amongst school students is 0.1 per cent against overall positivity of 0.2 per cent in the past one week. Since August 9, 41 students and one staff member in government schools have tested positive.

Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu suggested reducing the gap between the two doses to prioritise second dose for teachers and other school staff.

The Chief Minister Minister also ordered mandatory full Covid-19 vaccination or negative RT-PCR report for all those entering the state from Monday, with strict monitoring particularly of those coming from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu, which are showing increased positivity. Agencies