Noida: Gautam Budh Nagar health dept team visits school,collects water sample

The department is issuing an advisory to all schools in the district regarding safety measures to be taken and regular sampling of meals prepared on the school premises

A four-member team of health department officials, led by the chief medical officer, visited Step by Step School in Noida on Wednesday afternoon.

Nearly 190 students and staff members of the school had fallen ill last Thursday after consuming contaminated food.(Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

The officials have directed the school to get water samples tested and submit a report. They also reviewed other sanitary measures.

As many as 190 students and staff of the school had fallen ill last Thursday after allegedly consuming contaminated food prepared at the school canteen.

While samples of the cooked food were not made available to the administration officials to conduct tests, samples of edible oil, carom seeds (ajwain) and other spices were collected from the institution. However, water samples have not been tested yet.

“We have been told that the water coolers and the RO system have been cleaned and sanitised after Thursday’s incident. However, if there is contamination, chemical sterilisation will be required. The contamination can be confirmed only after test results arrive,” Anurag Bhargava, chief medical officer, said.

He added that the department is working on three major concerns, the first being why the incident took place. The other two concerns are that this incident should not happen again and that a similar incident is not reported from any other institution in the district.

While the district administration is investigating the matter to address the first concern, the health department is working on addressing the other two. The department is issuing an advisory to all schools in the district regarding safety measures to be taken and regular sampling of meals prepared on the school premises.

“We will revisit the school for another inspection. For all schools in the district, we will be issuing an advisory regarding cleanliness of kitchen and canteen area. We hope that all school regularly sample their food and perform a culture test of their canteen area,” Bhargava said.