Forty students of Bengaluru nursing college test positive for COVID-19, most are from Kerala

BENGALURU: Forty students of the Manjushree College of Nursing in Bengaluru tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. Health officials confirmed that most of these students are from Kerala.

Following this, the state government has made it mandatory for all students coming to Bengaluru's educational institutions to carry a negative COVID-19 test certificate that is not older than 72 hours. Also, mass testing camps will be carried out at all nursing and medical colleges in the city.

Kerala constitutes the highest number of cases across the country with more than 5,000 cases per day. A few weeks earlier, several students in Dakshina Kannada, Mysuru and Chamarajanagara tested positive for COVID-19. Following this, the Karnataka government had announced that students coming from Kerala to Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Mysuru, Kodagu and Chamarajanagar districts must get an RTPCR negative test report.

Meanwhile, after visiting the college, Commissioner for Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) N Manjunath Prasad said the private institution in Pulakeshi Nagar has a total of 210 nursing students, of which 70 percent are from Kerala.

He said that COVID testing was conducted for all the students between January 25 and February 10. The test reports showed that 40 students had tested positive, while 28 are asymptomatic and 12 have mild symptoms.

"The college has made arrangements for isolation of all the 40 students in the hostel with all basic facilities. We have also advised to isolate and quarantine all the 210 students for the next 14 days," he explained.

Meanwhile, the BBMP East Zone has appointed full-time field officers and marshals to work 24/7 to ensure there is no breach of isolation. Doctors from Sultanpalya Primary Health Care have been asked to visit at least once every day to check the students' vital parameters and ensure there are no health complications.

Also, the samples of the students tested were sent to NIMHANS, Bengaluru, for genome sequencing to determine if they were infected by a new variant of the novel coronavirus. The college authorities have been strictly told to ensure that the students don't step out of isolation and also get admitted to hospital if their symptoms worsen.

Mass testing camps to be held

According to officials, several nursing and medical colleges have reopened in the city and several students are travelling back from their hometowns in different states to Bengaluru. During the regular
testing camps being held at some of these colleges, the authorities have reportedly found some of these students to have tested positive.

Considering this, Commissioner for BBMP Manjunath Prasad has suggested to conduct mass testing camps at all nursing and medical colleges from February 14-20.

The BBMP Commissioner has also directed all Zonal Health Officers to ensure that the mass testing camps are carried out.