PATNA: Several schools in the city may have resumed offline classes with full capacity, but health experts advise them to ensure that the students maintain distance, wear masks, keep their hands clean, and stay home if they feel sick. This, they say, will help keep the third wave of the pandemic at bay.
Dr Nigam Prakash Narain, a paediatrician, urges everyone to adopt Covid-appropriate behaviour, which includes proper sanitization and social distancing, inside schools.
“Covid cases among children climbed at an alarming rate after schools reopened in the USA recently. Hence, educational institutes in Bihar should instruct kids with symptoms like cold, fever or cough to stay home and get in touch with doctors immediately,” Dr Narain suggests. He adds, “Only a limited number of students should be allowed in a classroom.”
Another paediatrician, Dr Arun Shah, asks all school principals to think of ways to protect children from Covid-19 during offline classes. “Parents should ensure that their kids wear masks properly so that their mouths and noses are covered. They should also make sure that all adults in their families get themselves vaccinated and do not transfer the infection to children,” he says.
The doctor also urges all the schools to get their faculty members and non-teaching staff fully inoculated. People, who are not vaccinated, should not be allowed to enter any school because they can spread the Covid-19 infection among children. Vaccinated people, on the other hand, have a very low chance of transmitting the virus.
Dr Shah, however, claims that kids may not develop severe illnesses due to Covid-19. “Kids’ immune systems seem better equipped to eliminate the virus than are adults’. They may only develop mild symptoms,” he adds.
An additional professor at the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences-Patna, Dr Chandra Mohan Kumar, also advises children to follow two important safety protocols — sanitisation and social distancing — to stop the transmission of the virus.
“We may not witness a massive surge in the number of fresh Covid cases during a possible third wave of the pandemic if everyone sticks to these guidelines,” he says.
