Nawanshahr sees 128 student cases in 10 days

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 22

Nawanshahr has started witnessing a rise in the number of fresh cases of Covid-19. The number of students testing positive for the virus has crossed 250 in the past two weeks in the district. While on February 12, there were 122 students who had tested positive, the number has crossed 250, which means that over 128 more students have tested positive in just 10 days (from February 12 to 22).

The vaccination of teachers has started in the district. Health officials said 70 students of Government Senior Secondary School, Karyam, tested positive. Until now, samples have been taken from 50 schools in the district.

Also, the exams of classes VI to XII are under way. The Education Department, the administration and the Health Department are already in a spot as there is no relief since last month.

Meetings are being held almost every day between the departments to chalk out various plans to curb the spread of the virus.

Officials of the district Education Department (Secondary) have come up with a ‘way’ to ensure that social distancing is maintained in the schools and students do not come in contact with each other.

“We have been taking exams by making the students of board classes (VIII, X and XII) to appear in the morning and the students of rest of the classes come to their schools in the afternoon,” District Education Officer (Secondary) Jagjit Singh said.

Those students who have tested positive are taking their exams from home.

Officials of the Education Department said students were not following the social distancing norms and most of the times they could be seen without masks.

A special checking drive has also started in the district.

Civil Surgeon Gurdeep Singh Kapur confirmed that vaccination of teachers had also started. “We had collected the data. The vaccination started today. We have been giving instructions to the school staff to adopt every measure,” he said adding that contact tracing was also being done so that the spread of the virus could be stopped.