Chandigarh, Nov 20: Even as cases of swine flu among school students continue to rise in the tricity, the UT Health department will reconsider the strategy of closing educational institutions completely.
After five fresh positive cases of students— including three residents of Panchkula and one each of Mohali and Chandigarh —were reported on Thursday, UT swine flu nodal officer H C Gera said the advisory committee formed to assess the H1N1 situation in the city will meet on Friday to discuss if the complete closure of schools for seven days is actually helping curtail the infection. The number of cases in the tricity has crossed 115 and majority have been school students.
“So far, we have suspended the individual class where one positive case has emerged and if there are three or more cases, the school has been shut. But we have noticed even if schools are closed, we cannot monitor the movement of school children in the neighbourhood,” said Gera, the member secretary of the committee.
Health officials said reassessment of the situation is being done after schools are pressing the panic button and suspending all the classes, even when there are no or very few positive cases. Experts believe that instead of closing the schools, which increases panic, gatherings and functions in schools should be banned.
Despite none of its students reportedly ailing from swine flu, St Stephen’s School, Sector 45, decided to close down till November 25. The school had sent around 50 students with flu-like symptoms back home on Wednesday.
Bhavan Vidyalya, Sector 27, also suspended its three-day long sports meet that was scheduled to start from Friday. PEC would resume classes from Friday after it was shut for a week on November 12. Meanwhile, a lecture scheduled for tomorrow in DAV College, Sector 10, has been cancelled. Classes in Ryan International School have also been suspended.
After two hostellers of Swami Devi Dayal Group of Institutes were found with symptoms of swine flu, the institute was closed down for around 10 days today. The authorities claimed that samples of two students had been taken and they were reported to be negative.
A 55-year-old woman of Mohali tested positive for swine flu today, taking the total number of positive cases to 13 in the town and 52 in Punjab.
–Agencies