A coronavirus cluster has emerged at IIT Madras, where 71 people, including 66 students, have tested positive from December 1 to December 13 after the campus reopened for final-year students.
Sample collectors from the Greater Chennai Corporation are testing about 700 students on campus now. The institution has temporarily shut its academic departments and research labs. Students on campus have been asked to quarantine inside their rooms and food is being sent to their rooms. “Symptomatic students have been sent to Covid care centres,” said an administrative official of the institute.
In a statement, the institute said it has been functioning on limited capacity with only 10% students in the hostels. “IIT Madras has been permitting research scholars who need to do experimental work to return to campus in a cautious manner — with a 14-day quarantine and testing of each returnee,” the statement read. “Our capacity to quarantine (with room service) is limited, and this limits the rate at which we can bring back scholars to the hostels.”
As of Sunday evening, Tamil Nadu’s Covid tally stood at 798,888. While 11,895 people have died of the virus in the state, 776,878 have recovered.
