Two students who wrote the Kerala Engineering Architecture Medical entrance exam and another parent who accompanied them have tested positive for Covid-19 in Thiruvananthapuram. One of the students was a secondary contact of a Covid-19 positive patient and the other wrote the exam in a separate hall.
The opposition had requested the government to postpone the exam held on July 16 as cases of coronavirus were increasing and Thiruvananthapuram was under lockdown.
According to the district administration, those who tested positive were a 19-year-old female resident of Karimpanavilakom, Pozhiyoor, a secondary contact of a positive patient. She had written the exam along with others in Thycaud Govt. Teachers Training College.
Another was an 18-year-old male student who wrote the exam in Govt. Girls Higher Secondary School, Karamana, in a separate room where only an invigilator and two other Volunteers were present.
The third was a 47-year-old father of a student and a resident of Manacaud, Muttathara who had accompanied his son to Cotton Hill School for the exam and remained in the premises till the exam got over.
A video from outside one of the exam centres in Thiruvananthapuram circulating on social media showed students and parents crowding at the gates and not following social distancing norms.
Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor had written a letter to Kerala CM requesting to postpone the exam amidst increasing Covid-19 cases. After the exams, Tharoor has also tweeted a picture from outside one of the centres.
This crowd of students crowding to enter an exam centre for #keam2020 have made a mockery of the social distancing norms. A Govt which wants to combat #Covid19 would not be foolish enough to persist with these exams when students (&this M.P.) have pleaded for their postponement! pic.twitter.com/oreANzJ24q — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 16, 2020
Minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan had also tweeted about the situation.
I had requested @CMOKerala against conducting #KEAM amid mounting #COVID cases in Kerala. But the adamant @vijayanpinarayi never listens. He has put lakhs of lives at risk, especially of the young students. @narendramodi @AmitShah https://t.co/z5yryWEj2U — V Muraleedharan (@VMBJP) July 17, 2020
The district administration has identified and home quarantined all 20 students who wrote the exam in the same hall along with the 19-year-old. The invigilator and volunteers have also been asked to be in home quarantine.
The district administration also asked all parents who stayed back during exam hours in the premises to be alert and monitor themselves for symptoms.
Comments
0 comment