173 NIT students test positive in 4 days: Official
Thirty-three more students of the National Institute of Technology in Himachal’s Hamirpur district tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, an official said.
Following the widespread infection in the Hamirpur NIT, the authorities made Covid test a must for people visiting the district hospitals for a checkup for any ailment, he said.
With 33 more NIT students testing positive for Covid, the number of infected students has gone up to 173 in the last four days, he added.
A total of 42 students were found Covid positive on Wednesday, 39 on Thursday and 59 on Friday, he said.
Earlier this week, nine NIT students were also tested positive. So, the total number of Covid-positive NIT students this week rose to 182, he said.
The NIT was already declared a ‘mini containment zone’ on Friday to check the spread of the virus.
Apart from the 32 NIT students, 42 other people including three students of ITI Bani tested positive for COVID-19 in Hamirpur district on Saturday, the official said.
This has raised the number of active cases to 305 in the district. All of them have been quarantined at their places.
He said in all 656 samples were tested on Saturday and the results of 75 of them came out positive.
The number of total confirmed cases in the district has risen to 18,393 as against 17,799 recoveries, he added.
He said no death was reported in the district today as a result the total death toll stood at 308.
Meanwhile, a district health official said the Covid test was made mandatory in the hospitals of Himachal Pradesh’s Hamirpur district for all such people who will visit there for getting them checked up for any ailment.
This order has been issued in wake of the spurt in the Covid cases in the district in general and in educational institutions in particular.
Hamirpur Medical College Hospital Medical Superintendent Ramesh Chauhan said the new order has led to further detection of more Covid infected people during the last two days and it would help the department to contain the virus spreading in the community.
It’s worth mentioning here that the number of new positive cases was recently rising in the district day by day and the number of active cases that had come down to less than fifty last week has gone up to 305.
