Coronavirus: Dubai school pupil tests positive for Covid-19

A 16-year girl who is a pupil of an Indian school in Dubai has tested positive for the coronavirus. The infection was contracted from the pupil's parent who had travelled overseas. The parent developed symptoms five days after returning to Dubai. Both the girl and her family members have been quarantined in hospital and are stable and recovering well, Dubai Health Authority said on Wednesday. All other family members have also been quarantined. The authority said it was conducting tests and monitoring the school's pupils, staff and workers who may have interacted with the patient. "DHA has adopted stringent pro-active precautionary measures to ensure the health, safety and well-being of all school pupils and their families. In co-ordination with the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, we have issued instructions for classes in the school to be suspended," the authority said. The school, which was not named by authorities, will be sanitised to prevent further spread of the virus. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Education said all schools and universities in the UAE would be closed beginning next week for a month. The first two weeks would be Spring Break - initially scheduled to begin on March 29 - and distance learning would be implemented during the second two weeks. During that time, all educational facilities - including buildings and buses - would be sanitised. Private schools were urged to set up their own distance-learning programmes or expand existing e-learning tools such as Google Classroom, ClassDojo and Seesaw, to cover the school day. The decision was made to contain the spread of coronavirus within the UAE.