229 students, four staffers test Covid+ at school’s hostel

NAGPUR: As many as 229 students at a residential school in Maharashtra’s Washim district have tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), district health officer Avinash Aher said on Thursday.

Four teaching and non-teaching employees at the school have also been infected, Aher said, adding that the area has been declared a containment zone. “Necessary treatment is being given to the patients. Two doctors and other health workers have been deputed to treat the students,” the official said. He said that almost all the students are asymptomatic.

Altogether, 327 students from various districts in Vidarbha region reside at the hostel of the Bhavna Public School.

Risod tehsildar Ajit Shelar said the students had joined the Washim hostel on February 14. Twenty one students tested positive in the first few days after which RT-PCR tests of all the 327 students were conducted, he said.

The development has come amid a spate of cases in the state. On Thursday, more than 8,000 cases were recorded in Maharashtra.

On Thursday, district collector Shanmugarajan S visited the school and instructed the district health department to provide care to the students and the school staff.

In a related development, the chief priest at the Pohradevi temple in the district, including 11 others, also tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday.