RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A teacher at the Shi­va Boys’ Hin­du Col­lege has test­ed pos­i­tive for the COVID-19 virus.

This oc­curred a day af­ter the school was dis­missed fol­low­ing re­ports that her rel­a­tive had con­tract­ed the virus.

Ques­tions are now be­ing asked as to why the teacher re­port­ed for du­ty know­ing a close rel­a­tive had gone for a COVID-19 test.

A staffer, who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty, said, “This is the fault of the min­istry. I am sure we will be see­ing lots of cas­es com­ing up in many schools. Now was not the best time to have teach­ers and stu­dents out for class­es.”

He added, “The min­istry should have wait­ed un­til there was a 70 per cent vac­ci­na­tion with stu­dents. The same way they want herd im­mu­ni­ty in the so­ci­ety, they should have wait­ed for herd im­mu­ni­ty in the school.”

Sev­er­al staffers and stu­dents went for test­ing yes­ter­day and were placed in quar­an­tine.

A se­nior school of­fi­cial told Guardian Me­dia that the teacher had in­ter­act­ed with eight stu­dents and many of her col­leagues.

He said the class­rooms, staff room and of­fice ar­eas were san­i­tized for a sec­ond day.

The pos­i­tive re­sult was al­so re­port­ed to the Coun­ty Med­ical of­fi­cer of Health who has been li­ais­ing with staffers and stu­dents and giv­ing di­rec­tives about test­ing.

The of­fi­cial said that class­es will go back to nor­mal on Mon­day.