64 school students in 2 Odisha hostels test Covid-19 positive

BHUBANESWAR: At least 64 students in Rayagada district of Odisha have tested positive for Covid-19, the highest number of cases reported on a single day in about two months, prompting the health department to ask all district collectors to prepare micro planning to keep the rate of infection in check.

District Welfare Officer of Rayagada, Ashok Satpathy said RT-PCR test of 257 tribal inmates of a hostel named ‘Anwesha’ in Kotlaguda area of Rayagada was conducted by the health department on May 4. Of the 257 boys, 44 tested positive. All of them are asymptomatic.

Namita Samal, the hostel’s matron said that following the detection of Covid cases, children who have tested positive were isolated from others. Students of eight English-medium schools of Rayagada stay in the hostel.

Similarly, 20 girl students of Hatmuniguda government high school in Bissamkatak block of the district have also tested positive for Covid-19.

The SC/ST department has asked the district welfare officers to start testing and tracking for effective control of spread of Covid cases, arranging treatment of both symptomatic and asymptomatic students and isolating positive cases in all department-run schools and hostels including the ANWESHA hostels.

It also asked the district welfare officers to arrange masks for all students and teachers and ensure social distancing and other Covid appropriate behaviour.

“There should be 100% health screening of all boarders in residential schools. A school-wise action plan should be prepared by the district welfare officrs for conduct of health screening of all student boarders by the ANMs of SSD Schools and health check teams of health and family welfare Department,” the department said in a letter.

Over the last month and an half, Odisha was reporting only 8-15 new cases every day.

Odisha health minister Naba Kishore Das said there was an increase in Covid-19 cases in some states and officials officials should put in place special measures for Covid screening and intensify surveillance.

“There is an increase in new Covid cases in Delhi and some other northern and southern states. Since hundreds of people are returning from Delhi and other states by trains and flights, we must enhance the screening measures and get all symptomatic people tested,” he said.