Bokaro district education department has closed two government schools situated in Bermo division after two students and a teacher tested Covid-19 positive in the district.

A student in a prominent private school of the town has also been detected Covid-19 positive, following which contact tracing and sampling of other students were done. The school is closed due to CBSE board examination.

Dr A.K Pathak, civil surgeon in Bokaro said, "district has again started seeing a rise in Covid-19 cases from March first week as there is 33 active cases at present. Every day 5-10 positive cases are surfacing. District health department has intensified Covid-19 testing to control spread of virus these days. However the major focus is on Covid-19 vaccination, but on Wednesday DC, Rajesh Kumar Singh has ordered to intensify testing and mask checking drive seeing rise in positive cases.

The cases in schools surfaced after health department conducted a Covid-19 testing drive by sending teams to government and private schools across the district.

District education officer (DEO), Neelam Ileen Toppo said,“a government middle school in Kurpuniya has been closed for eight days after two students of Class-8 tested Covid positive. Similarly, another government school at Koliyadabur has been closed for three days after a teacher-tested positive there.”

Both the schools are situated under Bermo Sub-division. All the necessary contact tracing and sampling of students and teachers were done in both institutions. Besides she has directed the management of all the 1626 government schools to follow the Covid-19 protocol strictly to prevent the spread of Covid-19 virus

There were nine positive cases of coronavirus on Wednesday in the district. Since March, 2020 6814 persons tested positive in the district. Of them, 6704 persons were cured while 67 patients had died. Health department has done Covid-19 testing of 3.37 lakhs residents here. Covid-19 vaccination have been administered to 72,000 persons in the district.