As many as 225 students of a public school hostel in Maharashtra's Washim district have tested coronavirus positive.
Four school staffers have also tested positive, an official said, adding the area has been declared a containment zone.?Altogether 327 students from various districts in Vidarbha region reside at the hostel of the Bhavna Public School.
Twenty one students tested positive in the first few days after which RT-PCR tests of all the 327 students were conducted,
Earlier this week, 39 students and five employees of a hostel in Latur district of Marathwada had tested positive.
Maharashtra on Wednesday witnessed a significant rise in coronavirus cases, with more than 8,000 new infections coming to light in a single day after a gap of over four months, health officials said.
The state reported 8,807 cases on Wednesday, taking its total infection count to 21,21,119. It had reported 8,142 cases on October 21 last year, after which the numbers had declined.
With 80 deaths reported on Wednesday, the state's fatality count rose to 51,937, the official said.?
Around 190 students and 70 teachers of two government schools in Malappuram tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, prompting health officials to ask school authorities in the district to keep extra vigil and strictly implement the COVID-19 protocol.
A district health official said around 150 students and 34 teachers of the Maranchery higher secondary school tested positive for the virus.
"Over 600 students of the school were subjected to virus testing after a student had tested positive late last week. All the students who were tested positive belonged to Class X and classmates of the student who tested positive first," the official told news agency PTI.
In the other case, 39 students and 36 teachers of the Vanneri higher secondary school at Ponnani tested positive.