Ten teachers test COVID-positive after Karnataka schools resume classes from January 

After the Karnataka Government reopened regular schools for Class 10 and PUC-2 students and Vidyagama for Class 6 to 9 students on January 1, ten teachers have been tested positive of COVID-19 in Gadag district. Around nine teachers have been tested positive in Betageri while one teacher has been tested positive in Naragunda taluk in Hubballi district. 

GM Basavalingappa, Deputy Director of Public Instructions, Gadag, said, "As per the government instructions, we had got the school teachers tested for COVID-19 and some of the results came out yesterday as well as today. Since nine of them in our district have tested positive, they are undergoing treatment. At the same time, staff members who were in touch with these teachers have been quarantined for ten days. These teachers who have been tested positive don't belong to the same school. They are from five different schools including Loyola High School, C S Patil Boys High School, Moral Kannada Medium Primary and High School, St John's High  and a Government High School in Naragund."

The local bodies have taken responsibility to sanitise the school and shut them down for the time being. The DDPI informed that they will reopen these schools once everything normalises and when they have explicit instructions from the health department. Yesterday, at least 19,226 students attended schools in Gadag district out of which 3357 students belong to Class 10 and the remaining are from Class 6 to 9 and PUC-1.

Six teachers and 25 children were tested positive in Timmapur and surrounding villages of Ramdurg taluk in October 2020. This had led the government of Karnataka's Primary and Secondary Education Department to stop the Vidyagama programme until December. We are yet to see if the government will take the same decision to stop Vidyagama classes yet again.