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Bhubaneswar: At least 53 students of a high school in Sundergarh district and 31 medical students of Vimsar, Burla in Sambalpur district tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.
While medical students have been advised to self-isolate, the authorities have decided to close the high school for a week. The number of cases detected from educational institutions comes at a time when the government is contemplating resuming offline teaching for classes I to V, raising concerns among health experts.
The infected schoolgirls belong to the government-aided St. Mary’s Girls’ High School and used to live in the hostel. The health condition of the affected is stable and no one has required hospitalization as of now.
Sundergarh Pawan Kalyan said that out of 600 students of classes VIII to X residing in the hostel, 53 have tested positive. “We have started contact tracing to find out whether the students have contracted the virus. They were wearing masks to school. They had recently returned from home. We want the school to continue as normal Also, all the teaching and non-teaching staff have tested negative. The shop owner nearby, with whom the students interact, has also tested negative for the virus,” Kalyan said.
School sources said a hostel inmate showed some symptoms after which his swab sample was taken. He tested positive. After this the school administration took samples of all the prisoners and the report of 52 came positive. Students have mild or no symptoms. He has been separated from the rest of the students to check further spread. The school administration sanitized the hostel and school campus. The team of doctors also visited the hostel.
In Vimsar, the infected medical students have been shifted to the isolation ward of the COVID-19 hospital there. An MBBS first year student had tested positive for the first time three days back. After this the student was shifted to the isolation ward. Later, during contact tracing, samples of about 180 students from three hostels were taken for testing. The infected 31 students are of MBBS first and second year.
Vimsar superintendent Lalmohan Nayak said that all the students who tested positive have received both the doses of the Kovid-19 vaccines. “Most of the students are asymptomatic,” he said.
The Vimsar administration has sought permission from the Sambalpur district administration to keep three hostels of the institution in micro-containment.
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