New COVID cluster in Tamil Nadu: 52 MBBS students from Kancheepuram college test positive

New COVID cluster in Tamil Nadu: 52 MBBS students from Kancheepuram college test positive

The RMO said that 12 students had been sent home with their parents after receiving an undertaking that they will be put under home quarantine while the other 40 students are being treated

Published: 24th March 2021 10:44 PM 

By Sinduja Jane

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Even as the Tamil Nadu health department is struggling to control the rise in COVID-19 cases in the State, 52 first-year MBBS students at a private medical college in Kancheepuram district have tested positive for COVID-19.

According to an official from that college, six infected students in the hostel spread the infection to other students.

"First six students tested positive for Covid on Sunday. After that, all the students were tested. Till Tuesday, 52 students have tested positive, all of them first-year MBBS students,” said C Mahendran, Resident Medical Officer at the Meenakshi Medical College Hospital and Research Institute in Kancheepuram district.

"Girl students also were affected. We don't know the source of the infection. It could have spread to other students as they were attending classes together. Boys' and girls' hostels have been shut down and disinfection was done," Mahendran added.

The RMO said that 12 students had been sent home with their parents after receiving an undertaking that they will be put under home quarantine while the other 40 students are being treated at the COVID Care Centre at the hospital.

"The students were following social distancing norms in the classrooms. We also followed all the Standard Operating Procedures. So we don't know how this happened,” Mahendran said, adding that aside from the first six students, the remaining infected students are asymptomatic.

“The six students were tested after they showed mild symptoms," Mahendran said. He posited that the infection could have been carried in by the few students who were going to their homes over the weekends and returning to college.

The students also used to go out. The classes for the first year began only one month ago, Mahendran added. As the number of new cases daily reported from Chennai and its neighbouring districts is slowly increasing, officials have said that new clusters were driving the spread and posing a challenge.

Meanwhile, the State has closed all the medical colleges and ordered the colleges to conduct the classes online for students. Hostels were also shut down.