85 students, 11 staff members test COVID-19 positive in Uttarakhand school amid third wave fears

The number of COVID-19 cases is increasing across the country, intensifying the fears over a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. Amid these fears, as many as 85 students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Nainital's Gangarkote tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday.

While speaking to news agency ANI, Deputy Collector Rahul Shah said, “Initially, 11 students tested positive along the school staff was found COVID-19 infected. Following that Uttarakhand Health Department set up a testing camp and took 496 samples in which 85 children were found to be COVID-19 positive."

Another official added, “After the coronavirus cases came to light, the school was transformed into a micro-containment zone on the instructions of the Deputy Collector, Rahul Sah.” This comes as a surge of COVID-19 and Omicron cases are being witnessed across the country.

Apart from this, children are being isolated in the school itself and arrangements are being made for them, the children who came negative in the RTPCR test will have a rapid antigen test, and following that they would be discharged.

Amid the current COVID-19 surge, Uttarakhand reported four new Omicron cases, taking the total tally of the new COVID-19 variant in the state to eight, according to the data released by the Health Ministry. There are currently 1,525 Omicron cases across the country.

Till now, the highest number of Omicron cases has been recorded in Maharashtra and Delhi. Maharashtra accounts for 460 cases while Delhi has logged 351 cases to date. Out of the total 1525 Omicron patients, 560 have recovered till now.

The number of COVID-19 cases logged in India over the last 24 hours is 27,553. India started reporting a high number of COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks, and many states have decided to impose stricter restrictions to break the chain of infection.

(With ANI inputs)