After a Class II student of the school was tested positive for swine flu, the high-profile school has decided to remain shut in the best interests of the children.
Dhirubhai Ambani International School (DA-IS), in Bandra-Kurla Complex, announced on Saturday that it would be shut for a week. After a Class II student of the school was tested positive for swine flu, the high-profile school has decided to remain shut in the best interests of the children. DA-IS is officially the first school in the city to have shut down to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus among its students. The school will also be sanitised this week, said the school’s spokesperson.
A case of swine flu was brought to the notice of school authorities late on Friday evening. “This particular student went for a test on Monday and her reports came on Friday. After the family informed the school, we decided to keep only Class II shut for a week. However, after consultating medical experts, we have decided to keep the entire school shut,” said the spokesperson. All the classmates of the student have been advised to get tests done .
The school has also informed parents that the school will reopen on August 17. However, if any student is ill with fever, cold or diarrhoea, he need not join school and should come back only after fully recovering. A student from the school said, “Many from our class are falling ill regularly. It is good that they have taken a call to shut the school.”
Meanwhile, a student of JB Vachha High School in Dadar tested positive for swine flu on Friday. Sources claim that the student was abroad for some time and got infected there. After she was tested positive, the school asked other parents to get a check-up done at Kasturba Hospital. One of the parents, Jennifer, said, "My son's reports are negative. The school instructed us to get the swab test done." The school is shut for the next 10 days. But parents claim that's due to the Gatha holidays — an event celebrated by Parsis — that students get every year for ten days. The school will reopen from August 20.
In another case, a student from Billabong, Juhu, has been admitted to Kasturba Hospital as a suspected case of swine flu. However, the school authorities are clueless of any such incident. Hence, they have not taken a call on keeping the school shut. Lina Asher, the director of Kangaroo Kids, which runs the Billabong schools in the city, said, “My schools in Juhu and Santacruz have not reported a single case of swine flu. If there are any individual cases, then the school is not informed about it. We are creating awareness among parents and students. However, we have not taken a call on whether to keep schools shut.”
Although reports claimed that Rims International School, in Juhu, was shut since Monday, the school denied it. “Our school was only shut on Friday and that too because of the freshers’ party. However, we cancelled the party due to the flu scare. None of the students, who have reported on the first day of school, has been tested positive for the virus,” said the principal Kishore Pillai.
He added that eight to ten students are yet to report after the vacation, and the case of swine flu could be possibly among these students. The school will wait till Monday to see if any student is tested positive.
Swati Popat, the director of Podar Jumbo Kids, which runs a chain of schools in Mumbai and Pune, said, “We are waiting for government directives to shut the school. The coming week is a short one, with quite a few public holidays. So we can afford to keep our school shut for a few days. However, since there are no cases reported and there is no absenteeism, we are not closing down just yet. Also, our teachers are monitoring the students’ health. We have also ordered for N-95 masks for our staff.”
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