38 school girls test Covid positive in UP's Lakhimpur Kheri
Darpan News Desk IANS, 27 Mar, 2023 10:44 AM
Lakhimpur Kheri (Uttar Pradesh), March 27 (IANS) Thirty-eight girl students of the Kasturba residential school in Mitauli block of Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district have tested positive for Covid-19 infection, a district health official said.
Lakhimpur Kheri Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Santosh Gupta, said that one staff member was also found Covid-positive during a contact tracing exercise on Sunday after which the entire campus has been turned into a quarantine centre by the Health department.
This is the highest number of new Covid cases reported in a district in a day this year.
Gupta, who rushed a medical team to the Kasturba school, said samples of all 92 contact cases of the school had been sent for testing. The report of 38 among them was positive. Most of those tested positive were asymptomatic, he added.
"All students and staff had been advised seven-day quarantine on campus and provided medicine kits. Condition of all students, barring two who have cold, is fine," the CMO said.
Those found Covid-positive had been kept in a separate wing in the school campus, he added.
A mother and child wing in Motipur has been asked to keep 20 beds ready for any medical need among the students and staff in the campus.
"I personally spoke to students and assures them of all help. We are keeping watch on the health condition," said Gupta. An ambulance had also been stationed at the Kasturba school in case of any emergency, he added.
With this, the number of active Covid cases had risen to 41 since March 23, he said.
On March 23, a girl student of Kasturba residential school in Mitauli block had tested positive for Covid-19. Then, an elderly person of Behjam block and another person of Mitauli block also tested positive in the last couple of days.
Meanwhile, District Magistrate, Lakhimpur Kheri, Mahendra Bahadur Singh, said all precautionary measures, including providing medical kit, sanitisation etc, had been ensured. He said there was no need to panic and urged people to strictly observe Covid-19 protocol.
Punjab Police have arrested 5,824 drug smugglers, including 916 big fish, since July 5, Inspector General Sukhchain Singh Gill said here on Tuesday. He said 203 kg heroin was recovered. Additionally, 147.5 kg heroin was recovered by Punjab Police from seaports of Gujarat and Maharashtra, taking the total effective recovery of heroin to 350 kg in just three months.
Farmers under the aegis of Kisan Mazdur Sangarash Committee (KMSC) held protest and rail roko prorgramme at 17 different places in Punjab on Monday to mark the anniversary of Lakhimpur Kheri incident. It may be noted that 8 persons including four farmers had died during a protest in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3, 2021.
Announcing this on the floor of Assembly, he said the farmers will get the additional amount under State Agreed Price (SAP) of sugarcane as compared to the last year. With this decision, the state government will spend additional Rs 200 crore annually to benefit the farmers.
Accordingly, the police registered a case under sections 302 (murder), 307 (atttempt to murder) and 34 (common intention) at the Adarsh Nagar police station and during investigation, it was revealed that deceased had a quarrel with the five accused classmates in their school, due to which they murdered him to take revenge, while they were going home.
Moving a resolution to this regard, Mann said that the main function of the Punjab State Vigilance Commission is to enquire or cause enquires into complaints alleging commission of offences by a public servant under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.
In spite of the pressure and demand to step down, the accused seer has categorically refused to quit, according to sources. The meeting was held in the leadership of former minister H Ekantaiah in this regard and discussed future course of action.
