Bhubaneswar: With the reporting of over 30 Covid-19 infections in some schools, the Odisha government has constituted a special cell to monitor the cases in the schools, officials said Wednesday.
The Odisha School Education Programme Authority (OSEPA) has issued an order for this purpose. As per the order, the Covid monitoring cell has been constituted in the office of the State project director (SPD), OSEPA with the command control centre.
The officials engaged in the cell will collect the daily attendance of the Classes —9, 10, 11 and 12 and monitor various Covid related incidents of the districts and submit reports on a daily basis to SPD, OSEPA.
The government has also asked all the District Education Officers (DEOs) to constitute a Covid monitoring cell at the district-level as soon as possible and appoint a senior officer as Covid compliance officer.
The Covid compliance officers will ensure implementation of the Covid protocol in the schools and collect daily attendance of the Class 9 to 12 students and submit it to the OSEPA on a daily basis.
“If any Covid related incident occurs in the district, it will be reported on that very day to the undersigned without delay,” the order said.
Meanwhile, the School and Mass Education principal secretary, Satyabrata Sahu has issued a fresh SOP for the functioning of schools.
In a letter to all DEOs, Sahu said the teachers will have to ensure that students coming to the schools must wear masks. In case, any student has come to a school without a mask, the school administration should not allow the student to enter into the premises.
At the entry point, thermal screening and hand sanitization of all the students must be ensured, he said. Sahu asked the officials to ensure social distancing inside the classrooms and not to allow any student, teacher, non-teaching staff having mild symptoms like cold, sneezing and fever.
The above instructed came in the wake of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s Covid-19 review meeting, where he said that the educational institutions would be held responsible if reports of negligence come to the fore. He had directed the local administration to form special teams to inspect the educational institutions regularly.
