Dharwad’s SDM College of Medical Sciences reported 99 new cases on Saturday taking the tally to 281 positive cases, up from yesterday’s 182 cases. Of the 281 positive cases, only six mild symptoms and the rest are asymptomatic.
Karnataka health minister K Sudhakar said that SDM College of Medical Sciences has become a Covid-19 cluster with 281 people on campus having tested positive this week.
“I’m told there was a cultural fest and it spread there. But we are not in a situation to impose curbs [in the state]. Marriages and other events are happening too,” K Sudhakar said.
Deputy commissioner Nitesh Patil said that testing has been intensified and throat swab samples of 1,500 people are being collected every day from 11 new counters opened. Results of 1,890 staff and patients at the medical college and hospital are awaited. They have been quarantined.
According to college sources, the students caught infection after attending a function at an auditorium in the premises on November 17. About 200 students and few parents had also participated in the event.
Also Read: Covid: India reports 8,318 fresh cases, 465 deaths
Patients have not shown serious symptoms associated with the virus due to the fact they have all taken both the doses of Covid-19 vaccine. As a preventive measure, a holiday has been declared in educational institutions in a radius of 500 meters near the college till Sunday.
All the affected medical students are fully vaccinated and the symptoms are not serious, they said.
Meanwhile, 34 students of an international boarding school in Bengaluru had tested positive two days ago. The government and health department are repeatedly making appeals to people not to neglect social distancing and using masks at public places.
In the last week of October, 32 students of the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya residential school of Galibeedu village near Madikeri tested had positive for Covid in Kodagu district of Karnataka bordering Kerala.
With inputs from IANS.
