Campus of IIT Madras under temporary lockdown.
On Sunday, a total of 31 students were admitted to the government Covid Care Centre in Guindy after testing positive for Coronavirus. After 66 students and 5 staff members have tested positive, the campus is under temporary lockdown. According to the local reports, the students had claimed that there has been overcrowding in the hostel mess, which could have led to the spread of infection. Currently a total of 700 students are staying in the campus and they are accommodated across nine hostels with less than 20 per cent capacity occupied in each.
The IIT Madras management said in a press release that, “The Institute has been functioning on limited capacity with only 10% students in the hostels. As soon as a spurt in symptomatic cases was reported by some students residing in the hostels, the Institute has consulted the Civic authorities and has arranged for all students residing in the hostels to be tested for COVID-19. To be cautious, all students have been asked to remain in their rooms and packed food is being supplied to the students in the hostels.”
The release further added, “Some Project Staff working on research projects and staying in the city have been coming to work in the labs, once this was permitted by the government. A SoP is in place to determine how many scholars and project staff can work safely in each lab based on its size, ventilation etc. Research scholars who wished to return earlier (out of turn with respect to the SoP involving quarantine before release into the hostels) were permitted to do so if they were willing to stay off campus similar to project staff, till their turn came to be accepted in the hostels, and provided their lab could accommodate them.”
As per the State health department and the IIT management the source of the outbreak is ascertain. After the state government’s directive to function the institution from December 7, this is one of the biggest clusters that has emerged in the state of Chennai.
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