A Delhi school on Thursday sent a whole class home after a child and a teacher tested Covid positive.

The fresh infections in the privately-run school in the national capital have been reported close on the heels of schools in adjoining Noida and Ghaziabad reporting new cases, reported ndtv.com.

The worrying news also comes a day after Delhi recorded 299 new Covid cases -- a rise of nearly 50 per cent from the previous day's case count of 202. The national capital's total caseload has now increased to 18,66,881.

Atishi, MLA and a senior leader of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, said, "There are reports of a child and a teacher testing positive for Covid. Other students of the class have been sent home. We are closely tracking the situation."

Reports of infections from campuses have sparked concerns weeks after schools opened for offline classes after a two-year gap due to the pandemic. The long closure of schools due to Covid had severely impacted education, with a section of students losing out entirely owing to the digital divide in the country.

Even those who were able to log in for virtual classes suffered mental health issues as they remained cut off from their friends. Against this backdrop, the new infections have sparked an alarm.

Earlier, 23 school students from four schools in Noida have tested positive for the infection over the past few days.

"Found out yesterday that 13 children have tested positive in Khaitan Public School. The school has informed us that they have closed the school. So far, 23 children have got corona in entire Noida," the Chief Medical Officer of Gautam Buddha Nagar, Dr Sunil Kumar Sharma, told NDTV yesterday.

A private school in Ghaziabad was shut down for three days as a precautionary measure after two students there tested positive for Covid last week.