39 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Students Test COVID Positive, Cases Surge To 23 At NIT-Rourkela

Bhubaneswar: A third wave seems imminent in Odisha with COVID cases surging past 1200 on Wednesday.

Among the 1216 fresh infections, 456 have been reported from Khurda, 166 from Sundargarh, 99 from Sambalpur, 80 from Cuttack and 47 from Jajpur. These five districts have contributed to 70 per cent of the new cases.

Also Read: COVID-19 Cases In Odisha Jump By 79 Per Cent In 24 Hours; TPR Rises To 1.7%

According to sources, 39 students of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya located at Zinc Nagar in Odisha’s Sundargarh district have tested positive for COVID-19.

While nine students were found infected during an antigen test on Tuesday morning at Sargipali Community Health Centre, the remaining 30 tested positive when a team of the Health Department reached the school to conduct COVID-19 tests of all students.

The infectees are currently under home isolation.

The district saw a 141 per cent jump in new cases since the previous day of 69.

Notably, 13 new cases had emerged from the National Institute of Technology-Rourkela (NIT-R) campus on Tuesday, taking the total to 23. In-charge Director of NIT-R Prof Simanchal Panigrahi was also found infected.

According to official records, the test positivity rate had also jumped to 2.9 per cent, the highest in the state. Sundargarh now has 367 active cases.