By PTI
SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh on Saturday recorded 728 fresh COVID-19 cases, its biggest single-day jump in infections in the last several months, pushing the state’s virus tally to 2,31,587, a health official said.
Meanwhile, it was decided in a video conference meeting of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur with Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police and Chief Medical Officers from Shimla on Saturday that all educational institutions in the state, except medical, dental and nursing colleges, would remain closed till January 26 to ensure students’ safety, an official spokesperson said.
Thakur directed the officers to ensure that coronavirus testings are enhanced to check the spread of third wave of the pandemic.
Thirty-three more students of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Hamirpur district tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, forcing the authorities to make Covid test mandatory for all such people who will visit the district hospitals for check-up for any ailment, a district official said.
The death toll from the pandemic remained unchanged at 3,864 as no new fatality linked to the disease was reported on Saturday.
The number of active coronavirus cases in the state climbed to 2,811 from 2,153 on Friday, a state health department official said.
Seventy more patients recovered from the viral disease.
With this, the total number of recoveries in Himachal Pradesh stands at 2,24,890, he said.
A maximum of 219 fresh coronavirus cases were found in Kangra, followed by 116 in Solan, 75 in Hamirpur, 68 in Kullu, 63 in Shimla, 48 in Sirmaur, 36 in Una, 33 in Mandi, 26 in Bilaspur, 25 in Kinnaur, 15 in Chamba and four in Lahaul-Spiti, the official said.
A total of 173 NIT Hamirpur students have been found infected with the coronavirus in the last four days.
Forty-two NIT students tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, 39 on Thursday and on 59 on Friday, the district official said.
Earlier this week, nine NIT students also tested positive.
So, the total number of coronavirus positive NIT students this week rose to 182, he added.
The NIT was already declared as ‘mini containment zone’ on Friday to check spread of the virus.
Apart from the 32 NIT students, 42 other people including three students of ITI Bani tested positive for COVID-19 in Hamirpur district on Saturday, the official said.
This has raised the number of active cases to 305 in the district.
All of them have been quarantined at their places.
He said that in all 656 samples were tested on Saturday and the results of 75 of them came out positive.
The number of total confirmed cases in the district has risen to 18,393 as against 17,799 recoveries, he added.
He said the death toll from the pandemic remained unchanged at 308 in Hamirpur as no fatality was reported in the district on Saturday.
Meanwhile, a district health official said that Covid test was made mandatory in the hospitals of Hamirpur district for all such patients visiting the facilities for check-up.
The order has been issued in the wake of the spurt in COVID-19 cases in the district in general and educational institutions in particular.
Hamirpur Medical College Hospital Medical Superintendent Ramesh Chauhan said the new order has led to further detection of more Covid cases during the last two days and it would help the department to contain the virus spreading in the community.
The number of new cases in the district has witnessed a spike in the past few days and the active case count that had come down below 50 last week has gone up to 305 now.
