Two Noida schools shut after coronavirus scare

Noida (UP), Mar 3 (PTI) Two private schools here cancelled classes on Tuesday for the next few days as a precautionary measure over the father of a student testing positive for coronavirus, officials said.

The two schools announced their closure in messages sent to the parents, a day after the Union Health Ministry reported two fresh cases of coronavirus one of them in Delhi.

One of the schools, where the Delhi man’s son is a primary class student, said it will remain shut from March 4 to March 6.

The parent had thrown a birthday party last week for the child, triggering fears that the students who attended it might be at risk.

Medical samples from five students from the school have been taken to check if anyone has been infected, an official said.

Earlier in the day, the school said it was postponing internal examinations scheduled for Tuesday due to some “unavoidable circumstances”.

The board exams are not affected, the messages sent to the parents made clear.

The second school said it is suspending classes from now to March 9 and sanitising its campus.

Fumigation was underway at both schools.

A Health Department team led by Noida’s chief medical officer visited one of the schools in the morning, an official said.

Meanwhile, some family members of the coronavirus-infected Delhi-based man were shifted to Safdarjung Hospital for tests after they showed symptoms of the virus, Health Ministry sources said.

Some other relatives were asked to remain quarantined at their homes, the sources added.

An accountant working for the man, who lives in Mayur Vihar, was also taken to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital for tests, they said.

The Mayur Vihar resident had thrown a birthday party for his child last week and several people came in contact with him, Noida’s Chief Medical Officer Anurag Bhargava said.

“Sample of five such students have been taken from the school and sent to NCDC (National Centre for Disease Control) for tests. The report is expected by this evening and then the next course of action would be decided on the basis of that,” Bhargava told reporters.

He added that the school has been vacated and its premises are being sanitised. Its students and their parents were asked to exercise caution.

The senior doctor also urged people not to panic, saying that the virus is “fragile in nature”.