Cluster of Covid-positive nursing students found in Jakkur

Municipal officials have found another large cluster of Covid-infected nursing students, this time at a college in Jakkur.

The discovery was made after administrators at the Indira Gandhi College of Nursing (IGCN) asked municipal officials to screen students who recently arrived from other states.

“When the remaining 215 students from the college were tested, a further five cases were found among the primary contacts on Sunday,” said a BBMP Yelahanka zonal official. “Nearly all of the infected students are from West Bengal and Kerala, and had recently come into Karnataka,” the official added.

While the civic body said the source of infection is likely due to the students’ travel history, a senior administrator at IGCN said that all the students had the requisite RT-PCR negative certificates before coming to Karnataka.

Prasad V, managing director, Indira Gandhi Group of Institutions, said all the students were completing their first year and showed no signs of illness.

“The issue started after they went to a common centre to take their final exams on April 5,” Prasad said, adding that the source of the infection could be the exam centre, which he said also hosted students from six to seven other nursing colleges.

Administrators of this exam centre, located at a private nursing college in Kogilu, Yelahanka, could not be contacted by the time this report went to print.

Dr P G Girish, director, Directorate of Medical Education, said the source could be the hostel accommodations of the college itself. “Many of these nursing colleges have congested housing and poor ventilation. In all the nursing clusters seen so far, congestion was the cause,” he said. If the source was the exam centre itself, there should be cases recorded from other colleges, he added.

Yelahanka zonal officials said no additional cases had been found from other nursing colleges in the zone.

IGCN said that all infected students have been isolated. The BBMP said it would subject the 215 students who have tested negative at the college to another round of tests on the seventh day, next weekend, to see if any of them have contracted the virus.