Social Distancing Norms Go For A Toss In Odisha As Teachers Struggle To Get COVID Test Done

Cuttack: Teaching and non-teaching staff of all government schools in Mahanga block who went to Hanumanjew Bidyaniketan at Ranigoda on Saturday to undergo the COVID-19 test ended up flouting social distancing norms, reported The New Indian Express (TNIE).

Gross mismanagement was visible as at least 571 persons thronged the premises to get their COVID test done. The health officials who were collecting the samples did not intervene to streamline the crowd and neither were policemen deployed at the centre to enforce the social distancing norms, the report added.

On November 9, Mahanga BDO Nihar Ranjan Mallick in a letter had directed the Block Education Officer (BEO) to instruct all teaching and non-teaching staff of government-run schools to go for COVID test at two mobile swab collection centres on the premises of Raghunath Bidyapitha at Kothapada on November 17 and Hanumanjew Bidyaniketan at Ranigoda on November 21 at 11 am. The letter made it mandatory for all teaching and non-teaching staff to undergo a COVID test before the opening of the schools.

Of the 571 staffers of different schools who had come, 511 were screened through rapid antigen while rest 60 underwent RT-PCR test. Of the 511 staff, who had undergone rapid antigen test, 5 were tested positive for the virus. The RT-PCR test results hasn’t come yet, the report added.

“Had the authorities taken necessary steps for maintaining social distancing, there would have been no such huge rush. I am apprehending I may be infected as I was caught up in the crowd for a long time,” a teacher was quoted as saying.

Reacting to the situation, general secretary of Odisha Secondary School Teachers’ Association Prakash Chandra Mohanty said while the government is yet to take a decision on the opening of the schools, carrying out COVID test of teachers is unnecessary and will be useless. It will be fruitful if the test is conducted a few days before the schools open, TNIE reported.

District education officer Niranjan Behera told TNIE he was not aware about the instruction to conduct COVID test of teaching and non-teaching staff of schools.