AMARAVATI: As many as 163 students of a private college in Rajamahendravaram city in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh were found infected with the coronavirus on Tuesday, authorities said.
Incidentally, East Godavari today crossed the 1.25 lakh mark in total COVID-19 cases, the only district in the state that witnessed such virulent spread of the virus with several 'super-spreader' events in the last one year.
A student carried the virus from his family and infected his fellow students in the college, a senior official of the Medical and Health Department said.
All were Intermediate students in the private college and have been immediately placed under quarantine within the college, the official said.
"We have isolated the infected students and placed them in quarantine in special rooms in the college. They are being monitored by doctors and other medical staff," he added.
There were about 400 students in all in the college and RT-PCR tests were being conducted on all of them to check if any others were infected.
The area in Rajamahendravaram has been declared as a containment zone and necessary measures were put in place to check the spread of the contagion.
Deputy Chief Minister (Health) A K K Srinivas (Nani) reviewed the situation with Health Department Principal Secretary Anil Kumar Singhal, Commissioner Bhaskar Katamaneni and other officials and directed them to completely sanitise the college and other areas where the coronavirus spread.
He said steps were being taken to conduct RT-PCR tests in other educational institutions in East Godavari district.
Srinivas said 35 containment zones were set up in the district as COVID-19 cases were detected in Kakinada, Mummidivaram, Ramachandrapuram besides Rajamahendravaram.