This Article is From Aug 13, 2021

Karnataka Chief Minister To Seek Experts’ Views Before Reopening Schools

Colleges have opened for offline classes - but only for vaccinated students and staff. School students would not have been vaccinated as they are under 18.

Karnataka Chief Minister To Seek Experts? Views Before Reopening Schools

Karnataka schools will reopen on August 23 for Classes 9 to 12, the CM had earlier announced (representational)

Karnataka chief minister, Basavaraj Bommai, had announced earlier that schools in Karnataka would reopen for physical classes from August 23 for Classes 9 to 12. But while on tour in Mangaluru, he told reporters that he would be holding a meeting in Bengaluru with experts to discuss the whole issue of opening schools - possibly indicating that there might be a rethink on this.

Colleges have opened for offline classes - but only for vaccinated students and staff. School students would not have been vaccinated as they are under 18.

Bengaluru has seen around 40 to 50 cases a day of children under the age of 18 becoming infected with COVID-19 - usually after exposure to an infected adult. Fortunately, the cases among children are usually asymptomatic and mild and the city has reported no death of a child due to Covid since June.

There have been fears that children would be more affected by the third wave - but the proportion of infections of children has remained around the same as earlier in the pandemic.

The numbers of children affected in the city are not going up significantly - but there is of course no room for complacency.

Gaurav Gupta, BBMP Commissioner said, “We are keeping a close watch on the situation daily. There is no perceptible increase in the number of cases in any age group. However, keeping in mind the evolution of the pandemic we need to be always vigilant...citizens must follow mask discipline, avoid crowded places, and take vaccinations. More than 70 per cent of the eligible population in the city has taken the first dose which is one of the highest in any metro cities in the country.”

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