Coronavirus: 12 students at Karnataka residential school test positive, tally goes up to 33

A residential school in Kodagu district of Karnataka has reported a cluster outbreak of coronavirus with 33 people testing positive for the infection so far, The Times of India reported on Thursday.

Of those infected are 32 students and one staff member of Jawahar Navodaya Vidayalaya in Madikeri Town. The students, belonging to Classes 9 to 12, were tested for the infection over a week ago, reported NDTV. The results of 12 came on Wednesday.

All of them are being treated at a district hospital. However, 22 of them are asymptomatic.

Pankajashan, the principal of the school, told NDTV that none of the students are in a critical condition.

“Their condition is improving; there is nothing to worry about,” Pankajashan said. “The entire campus has been sanitised and other precautionary measures are being taken. The interaction between students and teachers is going on though it has affected the smooth functioning of the school.”

The district collector, district health officer and other officials visited the school on Thursday.

Authorities have taken appropriate measures to ensure safety of the students and prevent the spread of the infection. There are 270 students in the school.

Meanwhile, over 550 students have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last one month in Himachal Pradesh, a state health official told News18.

The official said that 556 students of various government and private schools had tested positive between September 27 and October 25.

As many as 196 students, the highest in any educational institution in the state, were found positive for the infection in Hamirpur district, followed by 173 in Kangra, 104 in Una, 26 in Mandi, 22 in Shimla, 14 in Kinnaur, eight in Kullu, seven in Bilaspur, four in Solan and one each in Chamba and Lahaul-Spiti districts, he told News18.

The official added that 250 of the total students are still infected while the remaining have recovered.

India on Thursday morning recorded 16,156 new coronavirus cases, pushing the infection tally in the country to 3,42,31,809 since the pandemic broke out in January last year. The toll increased to 4,56,386 as 733 more people died.