After 18 months of no playschools and kindergarten due to the pandemic, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin, said on October 14 that the government is ready to reopen both of these in Tamil Nadu from November 1 onwards. In light of this, the state government has directed all employees of kindergartens, playschools and Anganwadis to get vaccinated before November 1.
All private tuition centres, government and private organised employment camps would also be allowed to function henceforth. Last month, TN schools reopened for Classes IX to XII. Since then, there have been COVID-19 cases among school kids as a result of random RT-PCR tests. When cases are reported either in private or government schools, authorities shut these schools for a week and take all the necessary measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.
At the same time, authorities have kept a check on the positivity rate of COVID-19. Recently, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said that the state would take efforts to vaccinate children between 2 and 18 years against COVID once the Central Government releases a directive.
Recently, Bharat Biotech's Covaxin was given an 'emergency use status' and is the second vaccine for use in children after Zydus Cadila's three-dose DNA jab, approved for children above 12 years. The third vaccine is Novavax by Serum Institute of India, which has been cleared for trials on children aged between 7 and 11 years by the DGCI. Similarly, Corbevax by Biological E has been cleared to conduct trials on children aged above 5
Dr Uma Maheswari, social scientist and professor at a private college in Chennai, said, "Reopening of kindergartens and playschools is good. Children need to interact with their classmates and teachers physically. However, we should not let our guards down as it is a dangerous disease and the pandemic can return, full swing. So teachers and other staff at these playschools and kindergartens have to be well aware of the pitfalls and act accordingly."
