A total of 42 students and one teacher of a government-run residential school for girls have tested positive for Covid-19 in Telangana’s Sangareddy district. The Mahatma Jyothiba Phule Telangana Backward Classes Welfare Residential School at Muthangi village has a total of 491 students at the school. Out of which, COVID-19 tests were conducted on Sunday on around 261 students, and a total of 42 students tested positive.
The samples of the students infected with the virus have been sent to the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology for genome sequencing amid worries over the new variant called Omicron. Officials have now turned the residential school into an isolation centre for the infected students who are mostly asymptomatic with stable conditions.
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This is the third cluster outbreak that is being reported from educational institutions across the state this month. Last week, the Mahindra University campus near Hyderabad was locked down after 25 students and 5 staffers tested positive for coronavirus. The university authorities have resumed online classes for two weeks.
“Nearly 25 lakh people did not take the second dose of vaccine despite completing due date (the gap between doses), says Dr G Srinivas Rao, Director of Medical Health, Telangana.
Earlier, 30 students of a government-run residential school and junior college for girls in Khammam district had tested positive for Covid. The district authorities had to temporarily shut the school within days of its reopening in October.
Around 90 per cent of the 2.77 crore of the targeted population took the first dose and 45 per cent took the second dose. No one is aware of the effect, severity, complications caused by #Omicron. We still have to know about it. Whenever we receive an alert during the pandemic, we have to be alert,” explains Dr K Ramesh Reddy, Director of Medical Education (DME).
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As Covid cases continue to spurt under the threat of an impending third wave, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has directed officials to adopt test, track and trace strategies to break the chain of transmission. He has also asked officials to focus on medical infrastructure including the availability of beds, and oxygen cylinders at government hospitals, Covid-19 kits containing medicines to prepare for any kind of situation that may arise in the future.
District authorities have also been directed to expedite vaccination especially in districts like Adilabad, Kumuram Bheem, Nirmal, and Mahbubnagar which are reporting a low turnout of beneficiaries. Telangana has vaccinated more than 3.76 crore people of which more than 1.27 crore beneficiaries are fully vaccinated
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