As many as 42 students and 1 teacher of a government-run residential school for girls in Telangana's Sangareddy district have tested positive for COVID-19 on November 29. The cases have come to light at the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Gurukul School in Muthangi village of the district, which is about 50 km from Hyderabad.
A day earlier, there were COVID tests conducted on 261 students out of the total 491 students enrolled in the school. The remaining students are scheduled to be tested today. A health official said that all 27 teachers and staff members were also tested.
The samples of the students who tested positive were sent to Hyderabad for genome sequencing to check for the recent variant of concern — Omicron. The official said that the infected students were kept in isolation at the hostel in the school premises and that they were all stable.
One female student of the school had taken ill three days ago. The school authorities decided to conduct COVID tests on all students after she started showing COVID-like symptoms.
Third incident in ten days
This is the third incident of students testing positive in large numbers in Telangana in a matter of ten days. Last week, Mahindra University near Hyderabad was shut down after 25 students and 5 staff members tested positive for the virus.
The authorities had conducted COVID tests on nearly 1,700 students and staff members. A total of 25 students, 1 faculty member and 4 support staff tested positive. The university shut down for 15 days and began online classes from November 29.
Earlier, a total of 29 students of a government-run residential school and junior college for girls in Khammam district had tested positive for the Coronavirus. The cases were reported at the school and junior college in Wyra town. The school authorities tested all 550 students for COVID after a couple of students showed symptoms. This was the first time since the reopening of residential schools in the state last month that such a large number of students were found positive.
Educational institutions in Telangana reopened on September 1 after more than a year-long pandemic-induced lockdown. However, the High Court allowed the reopening of residential schools in the last week of October after the education department gave an assurance that all preventive measures will be taken.