In a development that should caution authorities in Kashmir ahead of reopening of schools in the valley next week, 225 students have tested positive for COVID-19 at a single school in the southern state of Maharashtra barely a week after they joined the hostel, NDTV reported.
Apart from the students, four teachers have also contracted the disease at Washim hostel prompting authorities to declare the entire school premises as a containment zone.
As per the NDTV report, over 300 students at the school are from Vidarbha region, mostly from Amravati and Yavatmal, the two districts, which have emerged as the worst hit by the Coronavirus lately.
The students had joined the Washim hostel on February 14, the report said adding twenty one students tested positive in the first few days, after which all 327 students of the school were made to take RT-PCR tests.
Pertinently, Maharashtra has emerged as the worst pandemic-hit state having already recorded 51,937 of the 1,56,705 COVID-19 deaths in India so far.
The daily rise of 16,738 Coronavirus infections in India was recorded above 15,000 on Thursday after nearly a month.
Besdies, daily deaths were registered above 130 after a gap of 26 days.
It is worth mentioning here that schools in Kashmir are scheduled to reopen from March 1 after nearly a year’s COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown.