Omicron Scare: 17 girls of Raigarh school test COVID-19 positive; reports of 476 students awaited

RAIGARH: At least 17 girls of Classes VIII and X of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Bhupdevpur in Chhattisgarh's Raigarh district have tested positive for COVID-19, an official said on Saturday. Raigarh Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr. S. N. Keshari said the 17 girls have been shifted from the hostel to a guesthouse and the entire school has been declared as a 'containment zone'.

"The reports of the 13 girls returned positive on Friday and the remaining four on Saturday. Samples of 176 girls studying in Classes VI to XII were tested on Friday and that of 300 boys on Saturday. These results are awaited," he said. "Last Sunday, parents of some of the children had come to meet them. One of the parents was infected. The health department has set up a camp to curb the spread and monitor the situation," he added. Incidentally, Raigarh district has led the daily addition tally in Chhattisgarh on December 18, 19, 21 and 22, local officials said. As on Friday, Chhattisgarh has a caseload of 10,07,540, including 13,597 deaths.

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In a similar incident reported by ANI, 33 medical students were tested COVID-19 positive at a medical college in Kolar, Karnataka, The students have been isolated in a hospital.

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In Gujarat's Vadodara, the district education authorities issued a show-cause notice against a private school for allegedly delaying sharing information about one of its students testing COVID-19 positive. The student who was studying in Class 8, had attended plysical classes. But the school authorities learnt about him and his parents being COVID-19 positive later.