27 school students test COVID-19 positive in Tamil Nadu

New Delhi: Around 27 school students of a private school in Dharapuram in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruppur district have tested positive for COVID-19. 

The Tamil Nadu Health Department said on Thursday (December 2) that nearly 374 swab samples were tested, out of which 27 tested positive for the coronavirus, IANS reported. 

The school conducted tests on other students after its two Class 10 students were admitted to the hospital with COVID-like symptoms. As per the school authorities, besides the two students who tested positive, the remaining 25 students were found asymptomatic and sent for home isolation. 

The Health Department said the private school will be closed for one week for disinfection. The state health department assured it will routinely monitor government and private schools to ensure they are adhering to the COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures. 

Tamil Nadu Education Department officials told the news agency that they have been conducting awareness programmes for parents regarding COVID-19 vaccination and safety protocols.

On Wednesday, Tamil Nadu reported 718 new coronavirus infections, pushing the total tally to 27,27,635. With 11 deaths in the last 24 hours, the death toll climbed to 36,492, a health department bulletin said. The state has currently 8,200 active infections.

Chennai and Coimbatore accounted for 117 and 118 cases respectively, while the remaining were scattered across other districts.

Meanwhile, Karnataka logged India's first two cases of the new "variant of concern" Omicron, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry told on Thursday.  "Two cases of the variant has been reported in the country so far. Both cases are from Karnataka," Agarwal said. 

(With agency inputs)

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