80 doctors, students at Patiala medical college test positive for COVID-19

Atotal of 80 people, including doctors, students and support staff, of the Government Rajindra Hospital and Medical College in Punjab’s Patiala have tested positive for COVID-19, officials said on Tuesday.

This comes as Patiala is turning out to be the worst-hit district in Punjab in terms of a rising number of coronavirus cases.

Patiala reported 143 fresh coronavirus cases, accounting for 34 per cent of the 419 cases in Punjab, with a positivity rate of 23.95 per cent, on Monday.

District Epidemiologist Dr Sumeet Singh on Tuesday said 22 resident doctors, 34 medical students, nine faculty members and 15 support and paramedical staff at the Government Rajindra Hospital and Medical College have tested positive for COVID-19.

The officials said directions have been issued to evacuate nearly 1,000 medical students from the hostel after conducting their Covid tests.

Those who test positive for the viral disease will be isolated, they added.

A few days ago, 93 students at the Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology in Patiala had tested positive for Covid, the officials said.

Punjab has been witnessing a rise in the number of coronavirus cases for the last few days.

The state reported 46 fresh cases of the infection on December 27, 51 cases on December 28, 100 cases on December 29, 167 cases on December 30, 221 cases on December 31, 332 cases on January 1, 417 cases on January 2 and 419 cases on January 3.

The positivity rate climbed to 4.47 per cent on January 3 from 0.63 per cent on December 27, according to a medical bulletin.

Similarly, the number of active cases jumped from 392 on December 27 to 1,741 on January 3.

Punjab has so far recorded 6,05,922 Covid cases and 16,651 deaths due to the disease.