Over the rise in cases of an influenza-like illness causing fever, cough, and cold across Tamil Nadu, opposition parties have urged the state government to declare holidays for students up to Class 9 in schools, in an attempt to control the spread of the flu.

PMK founder S Ramadoss mentioned in a series of tweets that the Puducherry government had declared holidays for schools from kindergarten to Class 8 from September 17 to 25 after the union territory witnessed a sharp rise in the number of cases, especially among children.

“Most of the children are reporting high fever, cough and cold. As a result, there is a substantive increase in the number of children going to various hospitals and in the number of in-patients in Rajiv Gandhi Govt. Women and Children Hospital, Puducherry,” the territory’s health director said in a letter to the director of the school education department.

Adding that the spread is high among children attending schools, the director added, “Ideally infected people must stay at home and maintain hand hygiene, face mask and maintain social distance to bring down this infection,” As per health department officials, the number of people being admitted to hospitals with high fever crossed 5000 on Monday (September 19).

When asked if schools in TN should also be closed due to the spike in cases, state health minister Ma Subramaniam explained that it was not necessary. “Usually, it will be more than 5000 cases during this same time period. However, in the last two years, there have been fewer cases as people adhere to strict Covid-19 protocols. Parents have also been advised not to send their wards to school if they have fever symptoms. This fever will last for three to five days,” he said.