Fourth wave scare! Tamil Nadu school turns Covid-19 hotspot as 31 students, 10 parents test positive

Chennai: Amid the constantly rising infections, a school in Tamil Nadu’s Andipatti turned into a Covid-19 hotspot after 31 students tested positive for the virus. The cases were found in a government school in Theni district on Friday, reported ANI. According to the District Education Department, the cases have been reported from Theni Government Secondary School, Andipatti. Besides students,  10 parents have also tested positive for Covid-19. The District Education Department has temporarily closed the school in repsonse to the risk. The health department said students and parents from the school have been asked to isolate themselves. The health department is in process of contact tracing.

The school has been sanitised by the district health officials.

 Tamil Nadu recorded 2,722 fresh coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, pushing the overall caseload to 34,96,321 on Friday. There were no fresh fatalities due to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours and the toll remained unchanged at 38,028, a medical bulletin said.

A day back, 2,765 new Covid-19 cases and one death was reported in the state. The new cases mounted the state-wide tally to 34.93 lakh and the death toll to 38,028.

Chennai which has been adding new cases in four digits for the last few days logged 939 infections followed by Chengalpet 474, Tiruvallur 191, Coimbatore 131 while the remaining was spread across other districts. Ariyalur recorded the least with one.

The state capital leads among districts with 7,335 active infections and overall 7,69,778 coronavirus cases.

A total of 32,614 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of tests so far to 6.74 crore, the health bulletin said.

Tamil Nadu Covid-19 vaccination

Meanwhile, the state government appealed to the Centre to allow 35.52 lakh vaccine doses, which would expire on September 30, to be used for administering precautionary booster shots to those aged between 18 and 59 years, free of cost at state-run health care centres.

During a virtual interaction with Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian made a request to administer 35.52 lakh doses, which were with the health department, as 'precautionary booster dose' to those aged between 18-59 years at government hospitals.

(With inputs from agencies)