A paper published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended that schools in the country avoid “routine temperature checks” owing to “limited evidence” of their utility.

“It must also be acknowledged that testing strategies for SARS-CoV-2 infection in schools should act as an adjunct and not substitute to other organizational and behavioural interventions,” says the study authored by ICMR Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava, Samiran Panda and Tanu Anand.

“Routine temperature or symptom checking in schools should be avoided due to limited evidence of their utility. It is also recommended that schools should have access to onsite testing facilities as per existing country-specific guidelines,” the paper published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research read.

According to the official sources, people, who have fully vaccinated and want to travel abroad, will have a CoWin certificate with their full date of birth.

This happened amidst the ongoing discussions between India and the UK over Covid vaccination certificates.

Currently, CoWin certificates mention the beneficiary’s age based on the year of birth besides other details.

The new feature is being introduced in compliance with the WHO norms and is likely to be available from next week.

“It has been decided that a new feature will be added to the CoWin under which those who are fully vaccinated and want to travel abroad will have full date of birth on their vaccination certificates,” an official source said.

According to a study, the Covid-19 R-value has sharply risen close to 1.2 over the last fortnight, mainly driven by cases in states like Kerala and Maharashtra. The R-value reflects how rapidly coronavirus pandemic is spreading.

As per the researchers at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, the R-value calculated between August 24-29 stood at 1.17 as against 0.89 between August 14-17.