Mass Covid-19 spread in schools triggers alert in Kerala

With around 180 students and over 70 teachers of two schools in Malappuram district testing positive for Covid-19, the state education department has directed all schools to ensure stringent compliance of social distancing norms.

Health department sources said that flouting social distancing norms while allowing classes 10, 11 and 12 to go on for revision and practical purposes was the reason for a large number of students and teachers getting the infection. Following this, the education department directed all schools in the state to ensure that students did not flout social distancing within the classrooms and outside.

The mass spread of coronavirus was reported at schools at Marancherry and Perumbadappu in Malappuram. Students of nearby schools are also being subjected to Covid-19 tests.

Meanwhile, a decline in the Covid-19-test positivity rate in Kerala during the last couple of days has triggered allegations of manipulations. A section of doctors alleged that several negative test results that were earlier unreported by private laboratories were now being added to the state tally. As a result there was considerable increase in the daily test figures by the government during the last couple of days and the test positivity rate also came down to less than eight percent, while it was over ten percent earlier.