MIT Manipal Campus in Udupi declared as 'COVID19 Containment Zone'

Bengaluru, Mar 18: Deputy Commissioner and Chairperson, District Disaster Management Authority, Udupi district has declared Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), an engineering college located in Manipal in Udupi district of Karnataka as 'COVID19 Containment Zone' due to rise in positive cases.

The development comes after 33 persons including 27 found COVID19 positive at Manipal Institute of Technology, Udupi district yesterday.

For effective implementation of Covid-19 control measures, Raju K, Assistant Commissioner for the Kundapura Subdivision, has been appointed as the Incident Commander.

Narayana Sabhahit, Registrar of the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) told the media: "The academic area will be excluded but the hostel areas will be a containment zone. Students in the hostel will be asked to restrict their movement. We will continue online classes but laboratory classes are postponed. If there are any examinations in the next two weeks, they will be postponed," the registrar said.

Expressing concern over a rise in COVID-19 cases in parts of the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called for "quick and decisive" steps to check the emerging "second peak" of coronavirus, and stressed the need to seriously follow the "test, track and treat" approach.

In a virtual interaction with state chief ministers over the pandemic situation and the ongoing vaccination drive, Modi also asserted that vaccine is an effective weapon against the diseases and asked states to establish more vaccination centres, be it government-run or private.

Modi urged states to scale up RT-PCR tests, which he said should account for more than 70 per cent of overall testing, increase vaccination centres while targeting zero wastage of vaccines, follow diligently the practice of "test, track and treat" and create micro-containment zones to curb the infection's spread.