Bengaluru,  At least 40 students of a private nursing college in Bengaluru have tested positive for the coronavirus, health officials said.

The officials on Saturday said that that most of these students are from Kerala and the mass testing will be carried out in all the nursing and medical colleges of the city from February 14 to 20.

Bengaluru's civic body Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad inspected the college and inquired about the measures initiated by authorities to tackle these cases.

Prasad also appealed to the state government to make it mandatory for all the students coming to the city's educational institutions, to carry a negative Covid-19 test certificate that should not be older than 72 hours.

The Karnataka government announced that students coming from Kerala to Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Mysuru, Kodagu and Chamarajanagar districts must get an RTPCR negative test report.

The Commissioner said the Pulakeshi Nagar nursing college has a total of 210 students and majority are from Kerala.

"The test reports showed 40 students had tested positive, while 28 are asymptomatic and 12 have mild symptoms. Among these 35 are girls and 5 are boys," he added.

Prasad said that the authorities claim that Covid testing was conducted for all the students between January 25 and February 10 but as precautionary measure the Bengaluru civic body has stationed its medical team in the college premises.

"Though the college has made arrangements for isolation of all the 40 students in the hostel with all basic facilities, we have also advised to isolate and quarantine all the 210 students for the next 14 days," he added.

The Commissioner also directed the colleges to go for mass testing camps at all the nursing and medical colleges in the city.

Meanwhile, the BBMP East Zone has appointed full-time field officers and marshals to work 24/7 to ensure there is no breach of isolation.

Prasad said that doctors from Sultanpalya Primary Health Care have been directed to visit the college at least once in a day to check the students' vital parameters and ensure there are no health complications.

"The samples of the students tested were sent to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (Nimhans), Bengaluru, for genome sequencing to determine if they were infected by a new variant of the Covid-19 virus," he said.

The Commissioner also directed the college authorities to ensure that the students don't step out of isolation and also get admitted to Victoria hospital if their symptoms get worse.

According to officials, multiple nursing and medical colleges have reopened in the city and several students are travelling back from their home in different states to Bengaluru.

The BBMP Commissioner also directed all Zonal Health Officers to ensure that the mass testing camps are carried out effectively.