BENGALURU: In yet another instance of cluster outbreaks in educational institutions, 15 girl students studying in two nursing colleges in Tumakuru, six students in Chamarajanagar Institute of Medical Sciences and five nursing students of Nanjappa Nursing College in Shivamogga have tested positive for the virus. Also, two students of a dental college in Belagavi have tested positive for Covid-19.
The Tumakuru students have been isolated in their respective college hostels and their samples have been sent for genome sequencing.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 in Tumakuru on November 21.
The RT-PCR tests were conducted on 90 students of Varadaraja College and 150 from Siddaganga college on November 22 and 23. The test results, which came on Monday evening, revealed that 15 of them had contracted the virus. Following the outbreak, the district administration has instructed both colleges to switch to online classes.
In the six nursing colleges in Tumakuru City Corporation limits, there are over 300 students, with most of them hailing from Kerala, Maharashtra and other states. In Chamarajanagar, the infected students have been shifted to the designated Covid hospital and are stable. Hospital authorities said they have tested 500 primary contacts of the infected students. College dean Dr Sajeev Reddy had tested positive last week and is in home isolation.
Shivamogga District Health Officer Dr Rajesh Suragihalli told TNIE that a total of 54 students returned from Kerala a week back. “The college took precautionary measures and isolated them immediately. As per the guidelines, they were tested after seven days. Of them, five students have tested positive. None of the students had any symptoms,” he said.
The two dental college students in Belagavi are from Bihar and are studying in the final year at a private institute in Belagavi. They were staying at the college hostel and had undergone Covid test which returned positive for the infection.