Chandigarh, Nov 13: Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Sector 12, has been closed for the next seven days after five new cases of swine flu were reported at the institute on Thursday. With a hostel resident already infected with the H1N1 virus — he is recuperating at his residence in Delhi for the past three days — the total number of affected students at the college has now gone up to six.
A spokesperson from PEC said, after directions from the UT Health department, they have decided to close down the institute for a week.
Four more persons — a BA-I student from DAV College, Sector 10, a nine-year-old Class IV student of St Annes School-32, a Class XI student of GMSSS-21, and a Mohali resident — also tested positive for swine flu on Thursday, taking the total number of positive cases reported in the tricity to 89.
After St Annes reported its first case, the school has decided to suspend Class IV for a week. GMSSS-21 has also suspended a section of Class XI for a week.
Later in the evening, DAV College authorities too decided to suspend the BA First Year classes for a week.
The infected DAV student is reported to have attended the recent PEC fest.
The two-day fest at PEC that began on November 6 saw a gathering of around 3,500 people on each day.
Of the cases reported from PEC on Thursday, two are boarders at the Himalaya Hostel on the college campus, two are residents of Sector 38 and Sector 24 in Chandigarh, and one lives in Panchkula. The hostel residents have been admitted in Government Multi-specialty hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, while the three local residents have been quarantined at their residences.
Panic gripped PEC after the news of positive cases started trickling in one by one. Most of the students wore protective masks even while attending classes. Attendance remained thin for most of the lectures.
“Ever since the first positive case of swine flu was confirmed in the college a few days ago, we have been requesting the authorities to close down the college for a few days. In any case, very few students have been attending the classes for the last two days,” said a college student.
According to instructions of the health department, the college has been asked not only to suspend the classes but also to close all the administration and the non-teaching departments for one week.
We have clearly told the PEC director to suspend all teaching and non-teaching departments for a week to curtail the spread of virus,” said UT swine flu nodal officer H C Gera.
Further, all the students have been instructed to report to hospitals in case they show any symptoms. “Among the outstation students, those having any flu-like symptoms have been instructed to stay back in Chandigarh. Others can go home if they are in perfect health,” added Gera.
Eight more samples were collected for testing on Thursday.
The total number of swine flu cases reported in the tricity has gone up to 89. Of these, 33 are residents of Punjab and Haryana, while the remaining are from the city
–Agencies