57 teachers & 6 students test COVID positive as schools reopen in AP!

The entire world is slowly limping back to normalcy, after the extended lockdowns that were being imposed by the governments of their countries. Even now, the relaxations of the lockdown restrictions have been announced not because the COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus has been eradicated but more so because the economies had been badly affected due to the lockdown! With the step-by-step rollback of the lockdown restrictions, many industries were allowed to resume functioning one-by-one. Now, with the latest relaxations, the Central Government has allowed schools, colleges and places of education to reopen. However, the date of reopening of these schools and colleges were still decided by the individual state governments. The Andhra Pradesh government announced that they would reopen on November 01st!

This decision by the Andhra Pradesh government came under criticism from all sides. They had questioned the wiseness of the decision to bring in young students, when the threat of the Corona Virus had not yet been completely negated. Some people even questioned this decision, asking that there were quite a few countries which were re-imposing nation-wide lockdowns, to prevent the spread of the second wave of COVID-19! Just as a means of validating all these concerns, a shocking report has now come out! When some teachers and students were randomly tested on the first day of the school reopening, about 57 teachers and 6 students tested positive for COVID-19! However, education department officials have come up with the opinion that they could have been infected elsewhere.

Media reports state that the data shared by the District Education Officer (DEO) of Chittoor district reveals the medical and health department to have randomly tested about 2,534 teachers and 608 students, across the district. These tests revealed 57 teachers and 6 students returning positive for COVID-19. Health officials have confirmed these results and added that random testing would continue. They have also assured that safety precautions and sanitisation efforts would continue to be followed. A doctor from Chittor's health department also said, "We have been conducting Covid-19 tests on students randomly and all the teachers in the district have already undergone one round of tests. We have thoroughly sanitised the premises where the positive cases emerged." It still remains to be seen if the government would rescind its decision of reopening schools after this situation. Stay tuned for updates...