92 test positive at Tibetan school in Mandi village

Dipender Manta
Tribune News Service
Mandi, November 7

Ninety-two people---staff and students---of a Tibetan school at Chauntra village in Mandi tested positive on Saturday, officials said---a development that comes as the district records an alarming rise in infection numbers.

Most of the students who tested positive at the residential school were from outside the state---Ladakh, Nepal, Arunachal and southern parts of India.  Twenty-five of the 92 people who tested positive were staff members.

The school recently resumed classes after the state government allowed schools to reopen.

The new cases come a day after the district reported 191 new cases, and has caused some alarm among medical experts in the state who say that the state government’s decision to open up schools in the state could have been premature.  

Some 100 school teachers have so far tested positive in Mandi.  The district has been seeing a stead spike in cases in the last few days, posing a challenge to district administration.

Also on Saturday, three people died---a 16-year-old girl from Bilaspur, and two men from the tribal district of Lahaul Spiti, a 65-year-old and a 49-year-old---died at the Mandi Medical College on Saturday.

Mandi Chief Medical Officer said he expected more students to test positive over the next few days.

 “The students came back to the village a few days ago to begin classes. There is a hostel facility for the students. We decided to conduct COVID tests as a precautionary measure before allowing them to attend the classes. As many as 67 students were found positive, and while more new cases are expected in one or two days,” he said.

Deputy Commissioner Mandi Rugved Thakur said the students had been isolated at a school accommodation and were given appropriate medical care.

Most were asymptomatic, he said, adding that they would be moved to COVID care centres when the need arose.