Time for schools to reopen in phased manner, says Covid-19 panel chief

The chief of the Centre’s working group on Covid-19 disease said that the time has come for schools to resume classes in a phased manner.

Dr NK Arora, who heads the working group under the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) has warned that the parents and other members of the family of the school students should get themselves vaccinated against Covid-19. He also advised the teaching and non-teaching staff and drivers of the school bus should be vaccinated to create a protective ring around the students, even as he said that “children don’t get a severe disease or get very sick with Covid-19.”

The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya requested to get all the school teachers vaccinated on priority before September 5, when India celebrates Teachers’ Day. He also added that the Centre would provide an additional two crore doses of Covid-19 to the states this month.

However, Dr Arora has declared that ZyCoV-D, Zydus Cadila’s Covid-19 vaccine approved for children in the age group of 12-17 years, would be rolled out in October. The vaccine received emergency-use approval on August 20.  He further added that the NTAGI would conduct a meeting soon to chalk out a plan for introducing the ZyCoV-D vaccine in the Centre’s ongoing inoculation drive-by prioritising children with comorbidities.

The NTAGI chairman said it is estimated that less than 1% of around 12 crore adolescents in the age group of 12-18 years in India may have comorbidities, according to news agency PTI. “Healthy children will be given vaccines only after the immunisation drive for adults is complete,” Dr Arora said.