Gujarat school gets show-cause notice for delay in sharing info on COVID-19 positive student

VADODARA: A private school in Gujarat's Vadodara city has been issued a show-cause notice by the district education authorities for alleged delay in sharing information about one of its students testing COVID-19 positive, officials said on Wednesday.

The standard 8 student had attended in-person classes on Friday last week and on Sunday, the school learnt about him and his parents being COVID-19 positive. The school said it informed the municipal corporation soon after. However, the district education office said it was informed about the student's coronavirus status only on Wednesday morning and it has therefore issued the show-cause notice to the school for delayed reporting. The school said it learnt about one of its students testing COVID-19 positive on Sunday, and soon after it postponed offline class for four days and provided the local civic body with all the required details.

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Vadodara district education officer (DEO) NM Mehta told reporters that the private school has been issued a show-cause notice for taking time in sharing information about the student.

"We learnt about it in the morning (on Wednesday). A school inspector has contacted the school and sought all the details. The school should have informed us immediately and taken preventive action. The school delayed in informing us, so we have issued it a show-cause notice," Mehta said.

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In a statement, the school management said it was informed about the student and his parents testing positive on Sunday (December 12). As an immediate precautionary measure, offline class which the infected student attended was postponed for four days, while online learning continued. The school said the child and his parents have a mild infection and they are in-home quarantine. Apart from this, no new coronavirus cases have been reported in the school, it added. Vadodara district has so far reported 78,475 COVID-19 cases and 788 deaths, as per a state government release.