UP school students to wear full shirt, trousers to guard against dengue

The Uttar Pradesh government has directed school students across the state to wear full sleeve shirts and trousers in view of the rise in dengue and chikungunya cases.

The secondary education department has issued guidelines in this regard to all district inspectors of schools regarding the measures to be taken to protect students from communicable diseases.

Secondary education director Mahendra Dev has said it is necessary that students and parents are made aware through schools so that students can be saved from these diseases.

"Students should be directed to come to school in full shirt and trousers. Children should be compulsorily informed about communicable diseases and the problems arising out of them in daily prayer meeting," he added.

"Public awareness rallies should also be taken out in villages. Regular cleaning of open water tanks on the premises should be done. It should be ensured that there is no water-logging anywhere in the school premises and neighbourhood.

"It should be ensured that regular cleaning is done near handpumps and multiple handwash on the school premises and spraying of anti-larval/insecticides is also done. School premises and neighbourhood should be kept clean and bushes should be cut," he added.

If any child has developed symptoms like fever, they should be treated immediately. For this, the cooperation of the primary health centre should be sought immediately, he added.

In a review meeting, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said cases of dengue and other infectious diseases had gone up in the past few weeks.

Meanwhile, despite several measures to check mosquito-borne diseases, 36 new dengue cases were reported in Lucknow on Sunday.

Among the new cases, Chandar Nagar and Indira Nagar areas reported four each, followed by three each in Aishbagh, Chinhat, Tudiyaganj, NK Road, and Aliganj.

The health department team served notices to six house owners after finding mosquito larvae on their premises.

As per official data, 1,369 units of platelets are available in the blood banks. Besides, 248 beds are kept reserved for dengue patients at hospitals.