Doctors, academicians write open letter to reopen primary schools

More than 55 people including doctors academicians and other professionals have written an open letter to all state Chief Ministers Union Education Minister Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the National Disaster Management Authority demanding reopening of schools as soon as possible across the country They also appealed that opening of primary schools must be given higher priority The letter has been marked to the Prime Ministerrsquos Office as wellThe letter says ldquoThere is global evidence to support reopening of schools and the governments should urgently consider opening schools and resuming physical classesrdquo It said the aim of vaccination is to prevent severe illness and death however children are relatively at a low risk of severe or fatal Covid19 infectionData from the US indicates that those under 25 years are at onetenth the mortality risk from Covid19 as compared to traffic accidents Children are more likely to develop severe diseases from infections such as dengue However schools are not closed due to the risk from traffic accidents or dengue the letter arguedFurther 60 to 80 per cent of Indian children have had natural infections as per serosurveys Vaccination of children is not a prerequisite to open schools Nowhere in the world are children younger than 12 years being vaccinated but the schools remain open Underlining the study that points out that schools do not contribute significantly to Covid19 spread the letter says ldquoAdults and children are free to go anywhere except schools and aggressive testing in nonschool settings may also reveal positive results similar to schoolsrdquoSchool staff to get vaxThe Delhi government has directed private aided and unaided schools to vaccinate their teachers and staff ahead of the reopening for classes IXXII from September 1 A circular was issued in this connection by the Directorate of Education of the city government ldquoIt is the prime concern of Directorate of Education GNCT of Delhi to ensure the vaccination of all teachers and staff working in schools of Delhi Therefore all the HOSmanagers of private aidedunaided schools in Delhi are hereby directed to ensure that their teachers and staff get vaccinated immediatelyrdquo it read ldquoIn the above context all the private aidedunaided schools are also advised to facilitate their teachers and staff by making special arrangements for vaccination at schoolscluster levels in consultation and coordination with concerned authoritiesrdquo the circular saidMHA cautions statesAhead of the festival season the Centre on Saturday asked all states and union territories to ensure there is no large gathering and that they take proactive measures to check the spread of Coronavirus Extending the ongoing Covid19 guidelines for one more month till September 30 Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the overall pandemic situation now appears to be largely stable at the national level except for the localised spread observed in a few states The total number of active cases and high case positivity in some districts continue to remain a matter of concern he told the chief secretaries of all states and UTsIndia logs 467k fresh casesWith 46759 people testing positive for Covid19 in a span of 24 hours Indiarsquos infection tally rose to 32649947 on Saturday while the count of active cases registered an increase for the fourth consecutive day according to Union Health Ministry data Kerala continues to report a record number of cases and logged 32801 fresh infections The death toll climbed to 437370 with 509 fatalitiesCovaxin singledose similar to 2 for unaffectedA singledose of Covaxin provides a similar immunity response in previously Covidinfected people as those without previous history of infection with two vaccine doses says Indian Council of Medical Researchrsquos latest study The antibody responses of individuals with confirmed prevaccination SARSCoV2 were compared with those without prior infection32649947Total number of cases in the country as of Saturday437370Total no of deaths due to the virus in India31852802Patients recovered and discharged in india as of SaturdayThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever