64 Students From Two Hostels Test Covid Positive in Odisha, All Asymptomatic

The Naveen Patnaik-led Odisha government has directed the district welfare officers to start testing and tracking for effective control of spread of Covid cases.

Bhubaneshwar: Sixty-four students living in two hostels in Odisha’s Raygada district were found to be COVID-positive as the state reported 71 new cases on Sunday, officials said. The state has been recording around cases a day for the last one month, they said.

With this, the state’s COVID-19 tally increased to 12,88,202. The death toll stood at 9,126 with no new fatality. There are 160 active cases in the state at present, while 12,78,863 people have recovered from the infection.

Forty-four residents of Anwesha Hostel at Kotlaguda were found to be COVID-positive, hostel matron Namita Samal said. “All of them are asymptomatic and have been kept in isolation. All precautionary measures are being taken by the authorities to prevent further spread of the virus,” she said.

Students of eight English-medium schools in the district live in the hostel. In Bisamkatak block, 20 students of Hatamuniguda Government High School were found to be COVID-positive. They lived in the school hostel.

District Collector Saroj Kumar Mishra confirmed that 64 cases were reported from the two hostels. “During random testing, samples of 64 students were found to be positive, but they don’t have any symptoms. The health conditions of all the students are stable, and they are under supervision,” he said.

The new cases were found after testing 15,685 in the last 24 hours, recording a positivity rate of 0.45 per cent.