Another 18 test positive for COVID-19 at IIT-Madras taking total cases on campus to 30

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Another 18 people at IIT-Madras have tested positive for COVID-19, taking the total number of infections on the campus to 30 in two days, officials said on Friday amid a nationwide spike in coronavirus cases.</p>
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Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, who visited the IIT-Madras campus on Thursday, said the 12 persons who tested positive on campus were “doing fine and do not require hospitalisation.” All of them have been vaccinated.</p>
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"We have collected 365 samples as of today (at IIT Madras) and a necessity may arise to test 1,500-2,000 people here in the locality if positive cases increase", he explained.</p>
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He said that based on the genome analysis of the cases, 90 per cent are Omicron cases of BA.2 variant.</p>
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The surge in aces has given rise to concern as educational institutions had resumed normal studies after a long gap.</p>
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In Tamil Nadu, the cases had gone down to as low as 18 but now it has slowly increased again.</p>
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Meanwhile, nationwide 2,451 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded on Friday, April 22. This has pushed the total number of active cases to 14,241 in the country.</p>
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For the third day in a row, India has recorded more than 2,000 new cases of Covid-19.</p>
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The daily positivity rate stood at 0.55% with the weekly positivity rate at 0.47%.</p>
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There is some cause for worry as people have become careless and tend to avoid masks and do not follow Covid-appropriate behaviour.</p>
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Many states have now been forced to make wearing masks mandatory again as the number of COVID infections has started rising.</p>
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Meanwhile, the total number of vaccinations in the country crossed 187.26 crore mark on Friday.</p>
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<strong>Also read: </strong> <a href="https://www.indianarrative.com/health-news/new-variants-of-omicron-emerging-in-delhi-says-top-expert-165816.html">New variants of Omicron emerging in Delhi, says top expert</a></p>