A hostel block at the Andhra University College of Engineering in Visakhapatnam on Sunday was turned into an isolation ward after over 100 persons on campus tested positive for the coronavirus, The News Minute reported.
As of Sunday, 102 students and staff of the college had been diagnosed with Covid-19. The university administration said the cluster first emerged after more than 50 students tested positive on Saturday.
District Medical and Health Officer P Suryanarayana told The Hindu that out of 102 cases, 96 are men, five are faculty members and one is a woman. “Almost all the reports are out and a very few are yet to be received,” he added.
Suryanarayana said that most of the students were asymptomatic but a few suffered from mild fever. Four medical teams including doctors, nurses and staff at the university had been deployed to monitor the health of students, he said.
Authorities said the prime contacts of the patients were being traced. Around 1,000 students were tested as per protocol as of Sunday, according to The News Minute.
Andhra Pradesh Tourism Minister MS Srinivasa Rao visited the university, where a meeting was conducted with district authorities and the college administration, to take stock of the situation. “The district authorities are taking all the necessary measures to treat those who have been infected with the virus,” he said. “Isolation blocks have been arranged and the required Covid-19 kits have been distributed. Parents need not worry.”
Rao added that medical teams were supervising the situation round-the-clock. If students faced any inconvenience, they will be shifted to hospitals, the minister said, adding that the King George Hospital and Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences had been equipped with all necessary facilities to accommodate them.
“A total of 550 beds in super speciality blocks and 650 beds in VIMS [Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences] have been kept ready in case of necessity,” he said, according to The New Indian Express. “Steps have been taken to provide nutritious food to students in isolation.”
As India faces a renewed surge in infections, cases have also increased in Andhra Pradesh. As of Sunday, the state reported 8,95,920 Covid-19 cases and 7,205 deaths due to the infection, according to the state health department.
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