Reopen childcare centres in Bengaluru, says TAC | Bengaluru News – Times of India

BENGALURU: Karnataka’s Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee has recommended that the state government reopen childcare centres or ‘Shishupalana Kendras’ in Bengaluru. The move was proposed at a meeting on Tuesday, during which committee members discussed daily fresh infections in Bengaluru, hospitalisation numbers and fatality rates.
“There was a proposal from the government to discuss settin g u p of ‘Shishupalana Kendras’ run by the government,” TAC sources said. “Given the current scenario of the third wave, though cases are surging, the hospitalisation rate is less than 6%. Reopening of such childcare centres will help working women which is why we have made the recommendation. ”
Sources added that the positivity rate among children in Bengaluru is 10% and paediatric admissions is only 2%. “To send children to childcare centres, the child has to be as y m p tomatic and p arents must have taken both doses of the vaccines,” said sources.
Members also discussed the challenges of reopening schools for classes 1-9 in Bengaluru, and it was decided to review the matter again after a week. Schools in the capital were closed after the surge in cases. However, educationists and school mana g ements have slammed the government, pointing out that education does not appear to be a priority for the state since virtually every other sector has been allowed to function.
“We need to watch the trend for another week at least and conduct further analysis before deciding about allowin g schools to reopen,” said TAC members.
The committee has also recommended — again — that the government allow home isolation for international travellers who test positive for Covid on arrival, if they are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. While a similar recommendation was made on January 22, as reported by TOI earlier, the government ignored it as the Centre’s guidelines on the issue had not explicitly mentioned home isolation for international travellers who test p ositive on arrival.