Kerala schools to reopen on Monday amid Covid concerns

The Kerala health department is keeping its fingers crossed as primary school children come back to school from November 1 after nearly one and half years even though serosurvey showed that around 60 per cent of students in the state didn't have antibodies against Covid-19.

Classes for standards one to seven and tenth and twelfth will commence initially and classes for eighth, ninth and eleventh standards will commence by November 15.

Kerala health department sources said that the chances of formation of Covid clusters among children could not be ruled out.

A senior doctor in the state health department said that while a serosurvey conducted in September showed that only 40 per cent of students in the 5-17 age group in Kerala had antibodies, a May serosurvey done at the national level showed the number to be around 55 per cent. Even though the number vindicates the Kerala government, it also highlights the risk involved in opening schools.

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This decision, however, is based on experts' opinions that Covid infection would not be severe among children. Moreover, since the vaccination among adults in Kerala was progressing well with over 52 per cent being fully vaccinated and 95 per cent having gotten the first dose, chances of Covid-19 spread among adults through children could be minimised, said the doctor.

The existing online classes would continue and attendance at offline classes would not be mandatory. A large chunk of parents are unlikely to send their children to school from Monday, said government sources. Schools have received guidelines to adhere to Covid-19 guidelines and only vaccinated teachers would be allowed to come to schools.

Kerala still has a comparatively high number of Covid-19 cases. On Saturday, 7,427 fresh cases were reported taking the total active cases to 78,624. The seven-day average test positivity rate was 10.49 per cent on Friday.

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