8 students, staffers test Covid +ve in 2 days, count reaches 50 in Ludhiana

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 19

With eight more students and staffers testing positive for Covid in the last two days, the count of students and staffers testing positive after the opening of schools in the state has gone up to 50, of which maximum 22 cases are from Ludhiana, the government has confirmed.

Even as the daily testing in the schools has almost doubled on Wednesday, the positivity rate has dipped by half from 0.04 per cent on Tuesday to 0.02 per cent on Wednesday, the official figures have revealed.

The data compiled by the state government, a copy of which is available with The Tribune, showed that 11,109 students and staffers across schools in 22 districts were tested on Tuesday, of which four turned positive, at the hit rate of 0.04 per cent, while the testing figure shot up to 19,414 on Wednesday and the positive cases remained four, bringing down the positivity rate to 0.02 per cent.

While one case each was reported in Ludhiana, Amritsar, Moga and Muktsar on Wednesday, one case each was logged in Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Nawanshahr and Sangrur on Tuesday.

The state government had launched an extensive testing campaign in schools after 20 students from two schools in Ludhiana had tested positive for Covid on August 10.

The cumulative data of testing in government schools compiled by the Health and Family Welfare Department suggested that 50 of the total 71,332 students and staffers (both teaching and non-teaching) tested in 22 districts have been found Covid positive so far, accounting for 0.07 per cent positivity rate.

The district-wise figures revealed that Ludhiana tested maximum of 12,432 students and staffers of which 22 turned positive, followed by two positive cases of 7,237 tested in Amritsar, nine of 3,964 in Bathinda, two of 3,988 in Muktsar, one of 3,302 in Sangrur, two of 2,938 in Ferozepur, three of 2,707 in Fazilka, one of 2,273 in Fatehgarh Sahib, three of 2,210 in Nawanshahr, three of 1,050 in Faridkot, one of 2,429 in Hoshiarpur and one of 1,494 tested positive in Moga.

However, 10 districts — Jalandhar, which tested 5,712 students and staffers, Gurdaspur 4,617, Mansa 2,151, Patiala 2,133, Tarn Taran 2,099, Barnala 1,641, Kapurthala 1,516, Pathankot 1,252, Ropar 1,183, and Mohali, which tested 736 students and staffers, have reported no positive case so far.

Officialspeak

“I have directed the officials concerned to conduct at least 10,000 RT-PCR tests in schools daily and ensure that only fully vaccinated teaching and non-teaching staff is allowed to attend the schools.” – Vini Mahajan, Chief Secretary