What is in news :  The Covid-19 technical advisory committee (TAC) constituted by the Karnataka government has proposed the ‘school bubble’ concept to mitigate the spread of the disease among children (aged below 18) attending offline classes at schools and pre-university colleges across the state.

Details :

What are school bubbles

• Physical classifications made between groups comprising a small number of students. Each such bubble will include students who tend to remain as a group during school hours throughout the term or an academic year.
• Would help managements easily isolate a fewer number of students in case anyone gets infected. For instance, a school bubble can include 30 students. If one among them gets infected, the others can self-isolate but the school need not be closed completely.

Significance

• More relevant to students studying in primary school or below who have more chances of peer-to-peer interactions on a daily basis
• Risk assessment process to identify close contacts of a Covid-positive student will also get easier.

Is this concept completely new:

• This has been cited by the TAC for being successfully implemented at schools in the United Kingdom.
• The government there has further relaxed social-distancing measures for students within a particular school bubble.
• However, all members of the bubble are mandatorily subjected to RT-PCR tests if a student is infected.