DDMA forms panel to work out plan to reopen schools

Update: 2021-08-06 19:34 GMT

New Delhi: Noting that there is no harm now in reopening schools in the national capital, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal as ex-officio head of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), on Friday directed officials to set up an expert committee to chalk out a detailed plan.

The DDMA meeting was attended by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Health Minister Satyendra Jain and Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot. AIIMS Director, Randeep Guleria; Vinod Kumar Paul (Member, Niti Aayog), Dr Sujeet Singh (Director, National Centre for Disease Control), Dr Balram Bhargava (Director General, ICMR) and Krishna Vatsa (Member, National Disaster Management Authority) were also in attendance.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said at the meeting that the prolonged school closure had led to major learning losses and most parents wanted schools to be reopened. The Deputy CM also said that 90 per cent of parents had expressed this wish at the recent spate of Parent-Teacher meetings.

"As regards the suggestion for opening of schools and educational institutions, as advised by the experts it was decided to set up a committee of experts, including officials of Education and Health Departments to finalise SOPs, evaluate status of preparedness of the schools, vaccination of teachers and staff of the schools, etc. for proceeding further in the matter," Baijal said in a series of tweets.

According to officials, the committee will work on finalising a detailed SOP, assessing preparedness of schools, vaccination of teaching and non-teaching staff and addressing concerns of parents, and a decision in this regard will be taken thereafter.

"It was noted that in principle, there is no harm in opening schools provided certain prerequisites are in place. It was decided that SOP should be prepared on the issue and same be given to the expert committee. It was also stressed on vaccinating schoolteachers and staff," an official present at the meeting said.

The Delhi government had last week sought feedback from students, teachers and parents about the reopening of schools and received nearly 35,000 suggestions till now, of which 58 per cent said they wanted educational institutes to reopen.

The official said that 68 per cent respondents wanted schools to reopen and 83 per cent wanted colleges to reopen. wanted schools to reopen and

"The L-G also reiterated the need for continuing the test, treat and track strategy, constant vigil and strict enforcement of Covid-appropriate behaviour," the official added.

Meanwhile, the Capital on Friday reported five more deaths from Covid-19 as the positivity rate came down to 0.06 per cent with 44 new cases emerging out of the nearly 80,000 tests conducted in a day.

Significantly, the Covid vaccination pace has picked up in the Capital with August's stock coming in from the Centre. Over 83,000 doses were administered on Friday till 11 pm.

And as Delhi prepares to deal with the possible onslaught of a third wave, the government here has indicated that it is likely to undertake an advanced serosurvey to determine the prevalence of Covid variants and identify susceptible pools in the Capital, officials said after Friday's DDMA meeting.

"The survey will take into account extended epidemiological dimensions so as to identify susceptible pool and augment the genome sequencing efforts with an aim of prioritising vaccination," those aware of details said, adding the health department had been directed in this regard.

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