229 students in Washim residential school test +ve

Nagpur: In a major spurt in Covid infection cases in the district, 229 students living in hostel of a residential school at Degaon in Risod tehsil, four of teaching and non-teaching staff were found to be infected on Wednesday. The district administration has converted entire school into a Covid Care Centre (CCC) where all the students are undergoing treatment.
“Condition of all the affected students is stable and no serious symptoms of Covid-19 have been found in them,” Washim collector Shanmugarajan S told TOI.
“Students from the neighbouring districts were admitted to this school. It was decided to restart the school only after Covid-19 testing of all the students. The tests revealed that 229 students and four of the teaching and non-teaching staff were infected,” said Shanmugarajan.
While most of the infected students — 151 — are from Amravati district, 55 are from Yavatmal , Washim 11, Buldhana three, Akola one and Hingoli district eight. The concerned district administrations have been alerted and they have started contact-tracing activity.
The collector visited the school on Wednesday and instructed concerned departments to provide necessary facilities to the students. He also appointed assistant collector Vaibhav Waghmare as the nodal officer to oversee all these arrangements. Waghmare told TOI that teams of doctors and health workers have been deployed in the school to conduct regular health check-ups of the students.
“An expert doctor under the supervision of district health officer, examined all the students on Wednesday. On Thursday, a team comprising chest physician, paediatrician and other specialist doctors from the district general hospital once again examined the students. School building and the hostel have been disinfected,” he said, adding no student is having any serious symptoms.
Zilla Parishad chief executive officer Mangesh Mohite also visited the school on Thursday and reviewed health status of the students and facilities being provided to them.
District civil surgeon Dr Madhukar Rathod and district health officer Avinash Aher are monitoring the health of the affected students and facilities provided to them.
Dr Rathod said the students are largely safe and will recover within a week. “We are also taking care of the teachers and the staff. All are young and under-50 years of age group. They are doing well,” he added.
Scary Numbers
229 | students Covid-19 positive
151 | Amravati
55 | Yavatmal
11 | Washim
8 | Hingoli
3 | Buldhana
1 | Akola
None of the students has serious symptoms of Covid-19, most asymptomatic
Residential school converted into a Covid care centre
Students examined by expert doctors
Collector, ZP CEO visited, paying attention