COVID-19: 13 students test positive in Karnataka\'s government-run hostel

Amid the growing concerns of Omicron variant in the state, 13 students in Morarji Desai hostel have tested postive in Karnataka's Hassan district. Earlier on the same day seven medical college students of Chamarajanagar Medical Sciences Institute had also tested positive in the state.

Following the incident, the district administrations has put Hassan and Chamrajanagar on high alert. Both the Morarji Desai hostel and Chamarajanagar Medical Sciences Institute have been sealed off after the detection of the positive cases.

Reportedly, the COVID-19 tests were conducted on 325 students of the Chamarajanagar Medical Sciences Institute and the resuts were released on Tuesday. All students who have tested positive are asymptomatic and have been shifted to a Covid Care Centre where they are recovering well. The students tested positive during a routine RT-PCR test that is conducted in the educational institutions by the Health Department every 15 days.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday amid feard of an impending lockdown with the number of increasing COVID-19 cases in educational institutions, said that there is no proposal to impose the lockdown. This news comes amid the spread of coronavirus's Omicron variant in the country after detection of the COVID-19 variant in South Africa.

"We have instructed adherence to strict precautions at schools and colleges, but not to close them. There is no proposal to impose the lockdown," he said. He further urged people in the state not to panic about Omicron  and asked them to strictly follow COVID-19 guidelines.

While replying to a question about a person who arrived from South Africa found to be having different symptoms of the pandemic, Bommai said, "The test report of the person has been sent for genome sequencing. Exact variant of the virus would be known from the genome sequencing report."

While talking about awaiting the instructions from the Centre on the current situation in the country, Bommai said, "Our concern is that it is already over six months since the health workers received two doses of the vaccine. We will act according to directions from the Centre."