Chennai: Amid spike in number of positive cases during the last few days in Tamilnadu, a new Covid cluster has been identified at a Government-aided school in Thanjavur district.
Sources said a total of 56 people, including 55 students and a teacher, have tested positive in the last two days at the Government-aided Girls Higher Secondary School at Ammapettai in the district.
All those who tested positive were aysmptomatic. All the Covid infected students–studying in classes nine, ten, 11 and 12–and the teacher were admitted to Thanjavur Medical College hospital for treatment and their condition was stated to be stable, health officials said.
The school has been declared as a Covid containment zone and was sealed.
A two-week holiday has been announced and the health department officials have disinfected the entire premises.
Health department officials said a student, who had symptoms of fever and cold last week, was subjected to medical tests and the report returned positive for Covid.
Acting swiftly, the health officials, conducted two batches of tests for the 1,100 students and staff at the school.
In the first batch, 20 persons tested positive and in the second batch, 36 tested positive Sunday morning.
Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan attributed the sudden spike in cases due to careless attitude of the people, who were not
wearing face masks and not following the covid guidelines put in place by the government.
He said health department officials would conduct checks in schools in all the districts to ensure that the Covid protocols were followed in letter and spirit.