Soon after the Director-General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Dr. Balram Bhargava suggested that schools be reopened and stated that “it would be prudent to open primary schools first before opening secondary schools,” speculations are rife as to whether the Odisha government will consider the suggestion.
According to the fourth wave of the serosurvey, children are better at dealing with viral infections than adults. While those aged 6 to 9 years old had a seroprevalence of 57.2 percent, children aged 10 to 17 had a prevalence of 61.6 percent.
Dr. CBK Mohanty, Director of the Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET), supported the ICMR’s recommendation. He said that if the Centre develops a set of guidelines based on the survey, the State will soon follow and act accordingly.
“The guidelines are still to be released by the Home Ministry. They’ve just made a recommendation. We have no problems following the Centre’s standards in this regard “Mohanty stated. Pediatricians, on the other hand, believe that the schools should not start just yet and that they should wait a few more months.
“We should wait 2-4 months to learn the intensity of the potential third wave. The vaccines that will be available will be well estimated. It would be premature to open schools at this time “Dr. Sunil Agarwal, a pediatrician, acknowledged.
The ICMR has also stated that all school workers, including teachers, school bus drivers, and other members of the staff, must be properly vaccinated before the institution/s reopen. The Odisha government, on the other hand, is partially prepared with the same.
Some parents, on the other hand, are hesitant to send their children because the entire school staff has yet to be immunized.
“We are definitely in a state of fear, but if all the teachers and staff are fully vaccinated and there will be regular sanitization, we would have no problem in sending our kids to schools,” said Pallavi Kar, a parent.
However, some students feel that classroom teachings should start soon. “Online teaching is not that fruitful and it would be better to have classes offline in schools,” said Parthasarathy Behera, a student from Sundergarh.
