A medical college in Karnataka's Dharwad has become a Covid-19 cluster after the number of staff and students infected with coronavirus went up to 182 today from 66 a day before, officials said, according to NDTV.com.

They were found to be positive after a routine Covid test following the annual cultural festival at SDM College of Medical Sciences and Hospital in central Karnataka city.

Most of the infected people at the College were fully vaccinated against coronavirus, officials said.

On Thursday, the Covid test result of 66 fully vaccinated students and staff of the college had turned out to be positive following testing of over 300 students. More people from the college are being tested today.

The samples of the infected people will be sent for genome sequencing. "The students were fully vaccinated... We will be sending a few samples for genome sequencing to check if there's a new variant," NDTV quoted health commissioner D Randeep as saying.

The health commissioner said a freshers' party at the college on November 17 is responsible for the outbreak.

The infected have been put under quarantine inside the campus itself and the two hostels have been sealed as a precautionary measure, officials said.

"Most of them have got both doses of the vaccine. All of them have been isolated in the campus itself," Dr Yashwant, district health officer of Hubli-Dharwad, said.

The Covid positive patients have mild or no symptoms and are undergoing treatment inside the campus, officials said.

The state health department has decided to test around 3,000 staff and students at the college and hospital (clinical and non-clinical) today. At least 1,000 people have been tested till now, and their reports are awaited.

Dharwad deputy commissioner Nitesh Patil, who visited the campus on Thursday, told reporters that the decision to shut down the hostels was taken as the positive cases had been accommodated in the buildings.

He said all those who had tested positive had already received two doses of vaccine and were all first-year MBBS students from other states.

A college source, who declined to be named, told The Telegraph that police had been deployed to ensure no one left or entered the sealed hostel blocks.

“The health department is in touch with us to ensure those who are in isolation and quarantine are provided food and medical care,” he said.

Karnataka is among the several states where the number of Covid cases has decreased in the last few weeks. The state reported 306 new cases today, with a positivity rate of 0.36 per cent.