As many as 54 students of Kunjpura Sainik School in Haryana’s Karnal city tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday, The Indian Express reported. Yogesh Kumar Sharma, a civil surgeon in the city, told ANI that medical teams have reached the spot and the school’s hostel has been marked as a containment zone.

On Monday, three students were found to be positive and infections were found among others after contact tracing was done, NDTV reported.

“All the students are in the age group of 16-18 years and were in the school hostel,” Sharma told The Indian Express. “They had returned from their homes after the school reopened.”

Sharma, however, said that only three to four of the students had mild fever, while the others were asymptomatic.

The development came only days after schools were reopened in the state for Classes 3 to 5 on February 24. In December 2020, the state had allowed schools to reopen for Classes 10 and 12, while those for Classes 6 to 8 commenced on February 1. However, online classes are still continuing and attending school is optional.

Further, in an order on February 22, the Haryana government had said that schools will be divided into three wings and if a student in a wing is found to be positive for the virus, that wing will be closed for 10 days and the entire school will be sanitised, NDTV reported. If students in more than one wing are found to be Covid-19 positive, the entire school will be closed for 10 days, the order said.

However, no decision has yet been taken to shut the Karnal school, The Indian Express reported.

Sharma also said that prior to the outbreak in the school, cases in Karnal had almost reached zero, but now a fresh surge could not be ruled out.