163 students test positive for coronavirus at private junior college in Andhra

Health officials said that RT-PCR tests would be conducted in other educational institutions in East Godavari district.
A Covid care centre
A Covid care centre
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As many as 163 students of a private college in Rajahmundry of East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh were found infected with the coronavirus on Tuesday, authorities said.  All infected persons were intermediate students in the private college and have been immediately placed under quarantine within the college, a senior official of the Medical and Health Department told PTI. "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 Rajahmundry 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) Alla Kali Krishna 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 could spread. He said steps were being taken to conduct RT-PCR tests in other educational institutions in East Godavari district.

Minister Nani said 35 containment zones were set up in the district as COVID-19 cases were detected in Kakinada, Mummidivaram, Ramachandrapuram besides Rajahmundry.

Incidentally, East Godavari on Tuesday also crossed the 1.25 lakh mark in total COVID-19 cases. 

Overall, Andhra Pradesh reported 492 fresh cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours ending 9 am on Tuesday, the highest daily spike in over two months. The state saw 256 recoveries and two deaths in 24 hours, according to the COVID-19 bulletin.

The cumulative positive cases in the state touched 8,94,536 after 1.48 crore tests at the rate of 6.04 per cent.

The number of active cases climbed to 2,616, after a total of 8,84,727 recoveries and 7,193 deaths.

Krishna district reported 63, Chittoor 56, Guntur 47, Visakhapatnam 46 and Anantapur 29 new cases in a day. SPS Nellore added 22, Kurnool 20, Prakasam and West Godavari 12 each and Srikakulam added 10 new cases each to their tally, while Kadapa and Vizianagaram reported five and two cases respectively.

Chittoor and Visakhapatnam districts reported one COVID-19 fatality each.

Chittoor now has the highest number of active patients at 507, followed by East Godavari with 466 and Krishna 308.

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