HAMIRPUR: Forty-two students of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) here tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, a district official said.
He said 53 people tested positive for the disease in the district during the day and 42 of them are from the institute.
This has raised the number of active cases to 99 in the district.
No Covid-related death was reported in the district on Wednesday, and the count of fatalities here stands at 308.
The number of total confirmed cases in the district has risen to 18,170, and the count of recoveries as at 17,762, the official added.
NIT Director professor Lalit Awasthi said most of the infected students had taken part in an NCC camp, and there is a possibility that they contracted the disease there.
All infected students have been put under isolation inside the institution, he added.
A spokesperson of the health department said other students and the staff of NIT Hamirpur would be tested.
The state on Wednesday recorded 374 fresh COVID-19 cases that took its tally to 2,29,787, while one more fatality pushed the death toll to 3,863, a health official said.
This is the biggest single-day jump in cases in several weeks.
The number of active COVID-19 cases in the state climbed to 1,216 from 859 on Tuesday, the official said.
Fifteen more patients recovered from the viral disease.
With this, the total number of recoveries in Himachal Pradesh stands at 2,24,678, he said.
The Himachal Pradesh government on Wednesday decided to impose a night curfew in the state from 10 pm to 5 am to check the spread of COVID-19, an official spokesperson said.
It was also decided to close indoor sports complexes and cinema halls in the state and allow only 50 per cent attendance at gatherings in marriage and banquet halls, he said.
The decisions were taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.
It has been decided to impose night curfew from 10 pm to 5 am across the state besides closing indoor sports complexes, cinema halls, multiplexes, stadiums, swimming pools, gyms and langars, the spokesperson said.
It was also decided to allow only 50 per cent attendance at indoor gatherings including those at marriage and banquet halls, he said.
Himachal Pradesh has recently been witnessing an uptick in COVID-19 cases.
It recorded 374 cases on Wednesday, 260 on Tuesday, 137 on Monday and 76 on Sunday, according to official figures.
The number of active cases in the state climbed to 1,216 on Wednesday from 859 the previous day, a health official said.