Very low Covid positivity rate among students: Karnataka TAC

Out of 95,618 samples collected from students from class 6 to II PUC, only 86 tested positive for Covid-19. The test positivity rate (TPR) among school children is 0.08% as on September 15, which is good and reassuring, said the state Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).

Following the reopening of schools in Karnataka (classes 9-12 from August 23 and classes 6-8 from September 6) daily RT-PCR testing was done for schoolchildren. The sampling rate has dropped from 9% to 3%, and it is recommended to ramp up testing to 10% in a week’s time, the TAC said in its meeting held on Sunday evening.

The TAC report also recommended data segregation and reporting for urban and rural areas.

"Schools have reopened for higher age groups in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Puducherry. Till date, it is heartening to note that there are no reports of clusters of cases among children," the report added.

Read | Covid relief, package soon: Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai

On allowing full-day offline classes, Dr Rajath Athreya, one of the two paediatricians in TAC, said, "We haven’t gone into finer details like hours and days. That will be a multi-agency call. But our own random testing in schoolchildren revealed a very low TPR of 0.08%." Athreya said the aim is to start getting students into school "as we closely monitor for any surges".

As per the data provided to TAC by the Deputy Director of School Health from the state health department, the highest number of samples was tested in Koppal district — 16,804 from August 23 to September 15.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) incidentally tested only 86 samples in the same time period, Bangalore Urban district 2,016, and Bangalore Rural 588 samples. The highest positives were found in Shivamogga district, where 4,264 children were tested and 30 were found positive, followed by 12 positives in Belagavi district.

In the context of a possible third Covid wave, the TAC has also recommended the state to write to the Centre to reduce the interval between two Covishield doses from the present 84 days to four-eight weeks as was the practice earlier. This helps to rapidly increase the coverage of second dose and to dent/prevent the third wave, it said.

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