As many as 229 students and four staff from a school hostel in Maharashtra’s Washim district in the Vidarbha region have tested positive for COVID-19,district authorities said on Thursday.
The infections amid a resurgence of coronavirus cases across the State have prompted authorities to declare the premises a ‘containment zone’.
Washim has thus far reported more than 8,500 postive cases with over 900 active cases as of Thursday.
Officials said most of the 330-odd students residing in the hostel were from the neighbouring Yavatmal and Amravati districts which have merged as the new ‘epicentres’ of what is being seen as a second wave, reporting a sudden spike in cases over the last seven days. The students had returned to the hostel on February 21.
According to sources, around 20 students had tested positive last week after which all the 327 students were made to take the RT-PCR test.
Earlier, 39 students and five employees of a hostel in Latur district in Marathwada region, too, had tested positive.
While district administrations have begun to issue directives to shut schools and other educational establishments, the number of cases among school-going children has risen in the interior districts. Schools had reopened for classes V to VIII on January 27 while classes IX to XII had resumed in November of last year.
Authorities in Satara district in western Maharashtra said 35 students across 16 schools had tested positive. Of these, 25 were from classes IX to XII and the remaining were in classes V to VIII.
“A total 800 of 830 district schools [secondary and higher secondary combined] are still functioning with a student attendance of 57%. While we have issued directives for alternate attendance and shift timings, we have immediately closed down those schools where positive cases have been detected,” said a Satara district official.
