Karnataka medical college party turns super-spreader as cases rise to 182

Mangalore Today News Network / NDTV

Dharwad, Nov 26, 2021: A medical college in Karnataka’s Dharwad has become a COVID-19 cluster after the number of staff and students infected with coronavirus went up to 182 from 66 a day before, officials said today.

 

Most of the infected people were fully vaccinated against coronavirus, officials said, adding that a recent freshers’ party organised inside the college led to the outbreak.

The samples of the infected people have been sent for genome sequencing. "The students were fully vaccinated... We will be sending a few samples for genome sequencing to check if there’s a new variant," health commissioner D Randeep said.

On Thursday, the Covid test result of 66 fully vaccinated students and staff of SDM College of Medical Sciences in Dharwad had turned out to be positive following testing of over 300 students.

The health commissioner said a freshers’ party at the college on November 17 is responsible for the outbreak.

The infected have been put under quarantine inside the campus itself and the two hostels have been sealed as a precautionary measure, officials said.

"Most of them have got both doses of the vaccine. All of them have been isolated in the campus itself," Dr Yashwant, District Health Officer of Hubli-Dharwad, said.

The Covid positive patients have mild or no symptoms and are undergoing treatment inside the campus.

The state health department has decided to test around 3,000 staff and students at the college and hospital (clinical and non-clinical) today. At least 1,000 people have been tested till now, and their report are awaited.Karnataka is among the several states where the number of Covid cases has decreased in the last few weeks. The state reported 306 new cases today, with a positivity rate of 0.36 per cent.