Authorities tracing contacts of 31 nursing students who tested COVID positive in Bengaluru

The officials of the health department have sealed the Christian Nursing College located in Bengaluru's Horamavu after 31 students tested COVID positive.

The health department said on Friday that the authorities are putting all efforts to trace the primary and secondary contacts of the infected persons in the city.

Among 31 nursing students who tested positive for COVID, 20 hail from Kerala and 11 came from West Bengal. The whole campus has been sealed and the students who tested positive for COVID are being treated at HAL COVID Care Centre.

The students arrived in the city as the colleges were reopened on August 5. Initially, two students tested positive after being tested for showing symptoms. The college authorities have got the COVID test done for all 300 students.

Ten students tested positive and later the tests confirmed COVID positive results for the other six students. The recent tests have confirmed the infection among 15 students.

The authorities have sealed the Christian Nursing college campus, including the 100 meters of the surrounding area. The area has been identified as a containment cluster zone. The health department has instructed the college authorities to take the responsibility for keeping the students in quarantine for 14 days.

Most of the students are studying first-year nursing. The swab samples of primary and secondary contacts have been collected and sent for RT-PCR tests. The entire area has been sprayed with disinfectant to ensure hygiene, explained Mahadevapura Zone health officers.

The incident has come close in the heels of 32 girl students testing positive for COVID in the Noorunnisa Institute of Nursing, located in Kolar Gold Field (KGF).

Karnataka Health Minister K. Sudhakar stated on Tuesday that action will be initiated against the Noorunnisa Institute of Nursing for negligence in following COVID protocols.

"32 students, all from Kerala have tested positive for COVID in the institution. The management should have taken negative reports when they came back from Kerala. This was the responsibility of the organisation. I will make a visit on Wednesday and initiate action," he had stated.

The Karnataka government has brought down the number of cases in the state from 50,000 to 700 to 800 with great difficulty, he reacted angrily.

Sources in the health department said that they are looking into the submission of fake RT-PCR certificates by students and investigating the matter.