Around 52 students of a private medical college at Enathur in Tamil Nadu’s Kancheepuram district have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The swabs of the students were sent for testing after six students on the campus tested positive for the virus on Sunday. The college has closed its hostels and sanitised the premises. The source of infection for the 52 first-year MBBS students of Meenakshi Medical College Hospital and Research Institute in Kancheepuram district is yet to be known.
The six students were symptomatic while the rest of the students were asymptomatic, said reports. The primary and secondary contacts of the students have been told to undergo a test. Apart from the students, tests were also taken for faculty members, hostel and mess staff.
All the students expect 40 final year students, who are attending their exams, have been told to leave the campus. The students who have tested negative were advised to stay in home quarantine.
The students who tested positive are kept in an isolation ward and their condition is said to be stable. The management informed that the cases were reported despite following physical distancing norms in classrooms and Standard Operating Procedures, said reports.
As of Wednesday, Tamil Nadu reported 1,630 new cases of coronavirus. Of the total figure, 633 cases were reported from Chennai. The spike in cases has taken the number of active cases in the state to 9,746. After Chennai, the second-highest number of active cases was reported in Chengalpattu with 178 cases followed by Coimbatore with 147 cases and Thiruvallur with 86 cases. The state also witnessed a spike in deaths with 12 people succumbing to the virus. Of the people who lost their lives, all the patients except a 39-year-old patient had comorbidities.
Tamil Nadu, amid increasing coronavirus cases, is also set to face the Assembly elections on April 6. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.