After a student was confirmed infected with the virus, eighteen students in a school in Maharashtra’s Navi Mumbai tested positive for coronavirus. Following this, the school has begun a major testing programme.
After the father of the student who was initially discovered positive returned from Qatar, the entire family was tested for the virus. Despite the fact that the dad tested negative for the virus, his son was discovered to be sick.
Also Read | Tracking the spread of Omicron in India: A list of states with new cases
Following that, on December 13, numerous pupils at his son’s school were tested, and seven of them were confirmed to be positive. After afterwards, roughly 650 pupils were tested for the virus, and 18 of them, including the preceding seven, were discovered to be positive.
The school is doing mass testing due to the high number of instances among the children.
On Friday, Maharashtra reported 902 new COVID-19 cases and eight new Omicron infections. Pune was home to six of the novel variant instances.
Also Read | Vaccinated employees in California face workplace restrictions
In other events, on Thursday, the district government of Maharashtra’s Palghar employed drones to distribute Covid-19 vaccination doses to a rural village nestled in rough terrain in a first-of-its-kind attempt. As part of the experiment, a batch of 300 vaccines was transferred from Jawhar to Zaap hamlet in just a few minutes, saving health personnel 40 minutes of travel time in that distant section of the state. The immunizations were sent to the local public health centre, according to a statement from the district administration. The drone covered a distance of 20 kilometres in 9 minutes, according to PTI.
Also Read | Want to safely enjoy the holidays amid Omicron concerns? Experts offer tips
According to PTI, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackrey praised the initiative to use modern technology for medical purposes, and the health department has planned to use it more extensively for shipping live-saving medications, blood bags, vaccines, and other emergency supplies. Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Civil Aviation Minister, launched the first-of-its-kind project to deliver drugs and vaccines by drones in Vikarabad, Telangana. On September 11, the ‘Medicines from the Sky’ project was started.