Teachers’ body: Support kin of 225 Covid victims

A total of 225 teachers —

166 in-service and 59 retired — have passed away in the state during the second wave of

Covid19, the Telangana State United Teachers' Federation (TSUTF) has said.

On Friday, it released a list of the names of the teachers and said the highest toll was recorded in Sangareddy and Hyderabad districts, with 25 and 16 deaths

In the Nagarjunasagar Assembly segment, Warangal and Khammam municipal corporation limits, which saw election campaigning, 15 of the more than 500 teachers who took part in election duties died of the deadly virus, they said.

The federation has appealed to the government to help the families of the deceased teachers and take steps to prevent

Covid-19 infliction on teachers by giving priority to them in the vaccination process.

“Covid treatment costs

14 lakh to `20 lakh in private hospitals, but the state government is reimbursing no more than `1 lakh,” the federation said.

“Even this is given only to those who have been treated in referral hospitals. Since all the hospitals allowed for Covid treatment are not referral hospitals, there is no possibility of recovering from the infection even with that money,” they said.

They pleaded that steps be taken to provide cashless medical care on health cards, ex gratia to the families of those who died of Covid after election duty, and financial assistance and employment opportunities to the families of the deceased contract teachers.

The federation has sent a representation on this to Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar.