Teachers and students with only negative COVID-19 test results would be permitted to go to classes when degree colleges in the city reopen from Tuesday, an official stated.
- Manjunatha Prasad, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahangara Palika Commissioner, said in a statement here on Monday that as per the guidelines and standard operating procedure of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the state government, students, teachers and staff will be allowed to enter the college only if their COVID-19 test is negative.
After a long period of being indecisive, the Karnataka government permitted state-run and private colleges to reopen from Tuesday after staying shut for more than seven months because of COVID-19 induced lockdown.
The state capital has 432 private and state-run colleges, with around 60,000 teachers, non-teaching staff and students.
Prasad said that every teacher and student have to produce a certificate with a negative result from an RT-PCR test, showing they are free from the infection.
Wearing of face masks, washing hands with sanitiser, and keeping up social distancing in classes and college grounds are also compulsory for students, teachers and staff.
Prasad stated that students staying in hostels in college campuses or outside in the city also have to undergo RT-PCR test for the virus before going for classes.
Prasad added that the test result will be valid for 72 hours (3 days) in the absence of any COVID-19 symptom. The faculty along with students can get the test at any of the 141 urban primary health centres in 198 civic wards over the city.
The civic body has additionally deployed 450 mobile swab collection teams close to colleges to direct the COVID-19 test.
Prasad said that they expect around 30 per cent of students to go to their colleges initially as many of them are concerned about getting infected.
The students have also been given the choice of attending online classes if their parents are not ready to let them go to school.
Medical and engineering colleges in the state will resume from December 1, while the state government has deferred the reopening of schools until further notice.
with IANSinputs
