Second round of testing begins in Ludhiana

Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, November 19

The second round of testing for Covid-19 has started in the district in which the samples of health care workers and cops will be collected. In addition, with educational institutes being re-opened, students and teachers are also being tested.

Till now, 1,600 health care workers (HCWs) have been tested, out of whom 20 have tested positive. Earlier, 571 health care workers, who included doctors, nurses and para-medical staff, had tested positive and one had died.

Must for teachers

With schools and colleges being re-opened, coronavirus testing has been made mandatory for college teachers and students and in case of school students, it is the discretion of parents whether to get their wards tested, while for teachers, it is compulsory.

“HCWs work round the clock and come in contact with all sorts of patients and it was necessary to repeat their tests. Similarly, cops are also on duty amidst the pandemic and it was necessary to repeat their tests as well,” said district epidemiologist, Dr Ramesh.

The second round of Covid testing for the Police Department will begin tomorrow.

With schools and colleges being re-opened, coronavirus testing has been made mandatory for college teachers and students and in case of school students, it is the discretion of the parents whether to get their wards tested,while for teachers, it is compulsory.

Some classes at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital began today and all students were asked to submit the RT-PCR report for Covid-19 that should not be more than 96 hours before joining the college/hostel. All students have also been asked to submit an undertaking which also includes points like wearing mask on the campus, maintaining social distance and to immediately report to the authorities if showing any Covid signs.

In most of the schools, it is only senior students attending the school, while the rest of the students were taking online classes.

On October 27, a teacher from Government Senior Secondary School Samrala had tested positive for the virus, after which the school was shut and students were asked to resume their studies online.

The samples of the staff members who came in contact with the teacher were taken by the Health Department, while tests of the students were done after the approval from their parents.

A teacher from a private CBSE school said she taught primary classes and although students attend classes online, she goes to school and takes classes from there. All the teachers were tested before resuming their duties, she said.