31 more students test +ve at Thapar varsity

Karam Prakash

Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 16

Thirtyone more students of the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology here tested positive for Covid on Tuesday, while the reports of hundreds of others are still awaited. Now, the tally of infected students has risen to 69 over the past four days.

Subsequent upon large number of Covid cases, six hostels and some residential areas of the Thapar university have already been converted into micro-containment zones.

38 more die in Punjab

Frosh Week — a programme to welcome freshers from March 7-13 — is said to have been the trigger for the Covid outbreak on the university campus. During the week, students had organised cultural events, fashion show and sports events among others. Sources said a DJ night was also held on the campus.

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When asked about the events, Gurbinder Singh, Registrar, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, shrugged off the responsibility by saying: “We had directed the students to follow the Covid guidelines strictly. However, it could be possible that some of them did not follow the protocol to get clicked at the events.”

Meanwhile, chaotic scenes were witnessed in the university on Tuesday afternoon, when a large number of students turned up to get tested for the virus. Patiala Civil Surgeon and district epidemiologist Dr Satinder Singh had to rush to the spot to manage the situation. Consequently, the health officials asked to the students to return to their hostels.

Soon, some of the parents reached the campus to take their wards back home. However, the health and university authorities are giving permission to only those parents whose children had a negative report. In case of infected students, a special permission was required from the health officials.

Notably, many students who had tested positive had left the campus on Monday without informing the health authorities.

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However, the Civil Surgeon said, “The positive students, who belonged to nearby districts, were sent in ambulances only. Besides, students who tested negative were allowed to go home on their own. We have already tested a majority of the students. If need be, we will test more.”

Night curfew in Ropar district

• As number of Covid-19 cases have started surging in the area, Ropar Deputy Commissioner Sonali Giri has imposed nigh curfew in the district from Tuesday
• The authorities in neighbouring districts of Nawanshahr, Fatehgarh Sahib and Mohali have already imposed night curfew due to fresh spike in the cases. The DC said there would be curfew from 11 pm to 5 am all over the district till further orders

38 deaths in 24 hours

• The state reported 1,475 Covid cases and 38 deaths in the past 24 hours
• In the district-wise break-up of deaths, Jalandhar reported nine; Ludhiana six; Amritsar, SAS Nagar, SBS Nagar reported four each; Hoshiarpur and Patiala reported three deaths each; Gurdaspur and Muktsar reported two each; and Ferozepur reported one death

286 infected in Ludhiana

• As many as 56 students were among 286 new cases reported in Ludhiana in the past 24 hours
• Of the 56 students, 49 were from Government Senior Secondary School at Bhundri village in the district. Ten persons, including four from other districts, died in the past 24 hours