As many as 21 medical students of the Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) in Karnataka's Ballari tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday, January 5. As a result, the authorities have conducted tests on all students staying at the hostel, and those who tested positive have been sent to the district hospital. VIMS Director Dr T Gangadhar Gowda said that all the infected students are first and second-year medical students. The authorities have sanitised the premises and enforced strict vigilance in the campus, he said.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 tests have been conducted on 60 police personnel attached to Byatarayanapura police station in Bengaluru following a police officer testing positive for the virus on Wednesday. The police station has been sanitised and police officers have been asked to follow Covid guidelines and watch out for symptoms. DCP West Sanjeev Patil said that most of the police stations in the city have been sanitised.
Amid the rising COVID-19 cases and an expected third wave of infections, state minister Dr CN Ashwathanarayana Rao said that districts that share borders with neighbouring states will not be closed. “The movement between the neighboring states will remain normal but more vigilance will be kept. The new guidelines are implemented to prevent the situation from going out of hand,” he said.
Karnataka has been reporting a spike in COVID-19 cases over the past few days. On Wednesday, state Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said that the number of infections nearly doubled in 24 hours, going to 4,246 cases from 2,053 cases the previous day. Of these 4,246 cases, 3,605 were in Bengaluru alone. The number of cases of the Omicron variant is 226 in Karnataka.