Throwing social-distancing norms to the wind, headmasters, teachers and other non-teaching staff of all government schools in Mahanga block crowded Hanumanjew Bidyaniketan at Ranigoda on Saturday to undergo COVID test. Even as COVID-19 safety norms were violated at the COVID test centre, the health officials who were conducting the COVID test did not intervene to disperse and streamline the crowd. Not a single policeman was found to have been deployed at the COVID test centre to enforce social-distancing.
As per reports, Mahanga BDO in a letter on November 9 had directed the concerned Block Education Officer (BEO) to instruct all teaching and non-teaching staffs of government-run schools in the block to go for COVID test at the two mobile swab testing centres in the premises of Raghunath Bidyapitha at Kothapada on November 17 and Hanumanjew Bidyapitha at Ranigoda on November 21 at 11 AM. The COVID test of all teaching and non-teaching staff is necessitated before the opening of the schools, the letter further stated. Accordingly, 571 teaching and non-teaching staffs of different government-run schools had gathered to undergo COVID test on the premises of Hanumanjew Bidyaniketan at Ranigoda on Saturday.
However, due to gross mismanagement at the COVID test centre, the teachers in large numbers made a huge rush instead of waiting in a queue while maintaining the social distancing, exposing themselves to the risk of contracting Coronavirus. Of the 571 teaching and non-teaching staffs, while 511 staffs were screened through Rapid Antigen Test, the rest 60 had undergone RT-PCR test. Of the 511 staffs who had undergone Rapid Antigen Test while five were tested positive for the virus, the RT-PCR test report of the 60 staffs is yet to come from SCB Medical College and Hospital.
"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 in the rush for some time," said a teacher on condition of anonymity. At the time while the state government is yet to take a decision on the opening of the schools, carrying out teaching and non-teaching staffs' COVID test is unnecessary and will be useless, opined Odisha Secondary School Teachers' Association (OSSTA) General Secretary Prakash Chandra Mohanty while resenting the unplanned move of the administration towards COVID test of teaching and non-teaching staffs. "It will be fruitful if the covid test is conducted a few days before the opening of the school," said Mohanty. The District Education Officer Niranjan Behera, however, has clarified that he was unaware of any instruction for the conduct of COVID test of teaching and non-teaching staffs in the present situation.
