Updated: December 14, 2020 2:28:18 pm
According to officials, a total of 700 students are currently staying on campus, staying in nine hostels with less than 20 percent occupied capacity in each.
The IIT Madras campus was placed under temporary lockdown after 66 students and 5 members of the institution’s staff tested positive for coronavirus.
The state health department and IIT administration have yet to identify the source of the outbreak. According to local reports, the students had claimed that there was overcrowding in the shelter’s clutter and this could have caused the infection to spread.
This is one of the largest groups that has emerged in Chennai after the state government allowed educational institutions to function from December 7.
A total of 31 students tested positive on Sunday and were admitted to the government’s Covid Care Center in Guindy. After the outbreak, the institution has decided to temporarily close all departments, including all centers, laboratories and library. IIT officials added that students and staff members are now being screened. About 60 percent of the process is complete.
In a press release, the IIT leadership said: “The Institute has been operating in a limited capacity with only 10% of students in hostels. As soon as some students residing in the shelters reported an outbreak of symptomatic cases, the Institute has consulted the civic authorities and arranged for all students residing in the shelters to be tested for COVID. To be on the safe side, all students have been asked to stay in their rooms and students are being provided with packed lunch at the shelters.
“Some project staff who work on research projects and stay in the city have been coming to work in the labs, once the government allowed it. There is a SoP to determine how many academics and project staff can safely work in each laboratory based on its size, ventilation, etc. Researchers who wanted to return earlier (out of turn regarding the SoP involving quarantine before being released into shelters) were allowed to do so if they were willing to stay off campus in a similar manner to project staff, until their turn came to be accepted into shelters, and provided their laboratory could accommodate them, ”the statement said.
According to officials, a total of 700 students are currently staying on campus, staying in nine hostels with less than 20 percent occupied capacity in each.
Management said they will try to increase their ability to quarantine returning students, as the government is releasing shelters they have taken into custody to quarantine COVID patients for the past seven months. “IIT Madras has been in constant contact with the civic authorities and has been following all protocols and security measures,” the statement added.
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