TUMAKURU: With the spread of the Omicron variant looming large, as many as 15 girl students from Kerala studying in two nursing colleges here have tested positive for COVID-19, leaving authorities panicky.
They have been isolated in their college hostels as a precautionary measure and the samples have been sent to the laboratory at the Bengaluru Medical College (BMC) for genome sequencing to ascertain which COVID-19 variant they had contracted.
Eight students of Siddaganga Nursing College and seven from Varadaraja College who have taken admission for the first year General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) diploma programme arrived here on November 21.
The RTPCR tests were conducted on November 22-23 and the results which were out on Monday revealed fifteen of them had contracted the virus.
"The samples of as many as 35 persons across the district have been sent for the genome sequencing test and it may take a week's time for the results. Contact tracing is underway," informed the district health officer (DHO) Dr M B Nagendrappa. They are asymptomatic and doing fine.
The district, until Monday, used to report an average of 7-8 cases per day and it spiked to 23 following the nursing students incident, he added.
The district was reporting a low positivity rate for several months and now with the incident of nursing students testing positive, surveillance has been stepped up, said the deputy commissioner Y S Patil.