40 students test positive for COVID-19 at Ullal college

A private nursing college in Ullal, Mangaluru of Dakshina Kannada district has been sealed after 40 of its students tested positive for COVID-19. The students had arrived from Kerala.

Mangaluru:As many as forty nursing students from neighbouring Kerala have tested positive for COVID-19, prompting authorities to seal their college as a precautionary measure on Wednesday. The direction to seal the Aaliyah Institute of Nursing at Ullal in coastal Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka, bordering Kerala, was given by the city municipality.

Out of the 104 samples of staff and students tested, 40 B.Sc nursing students, including 11 boys, who had come for examinations after months-long break, tested positive, Dr H Ashok, nodal officer of Dakshina Kannada district, said.

He said four test reports are pending. The students had stayed there for two hours before they were tested after six male students were found infected on January 29.

A delegation of municipal council officials visited the college Wednesday and city municipal commissioner Rayappa declared the college premises a containment zone and directed that no one should enter or leave the place till February 19. The area has been sealed and other students have been isolated from the infected, he said.

The step has been taken as a precautionary measure and people need not panic, Rayyappa added. He said all students coming from outside the state have been directed to take mandatory COVID-19 tests.

With inputs from agencies