A coronavirus cluster has been reported at the IIT Madras campus in Chennai, with as many 71 people, including 66 students, testing positive since December 1. The facility reopened for final-year students on that day.
Worryingly, a total of 55 of the 71 cases were reported since Friday, The Times of India reported.
IIT Madras officials said a total of 774 students were back on the campus, with a majority of cases being reported among residents of the Krishna and Jamuna hostels.
Following the surge in COVID-19 cases over the weekend, IIT Madras has shut its academic departments and research labs. Students on campus have been asked to quarantine in their rooms and food was being sent to their rooms.
IIT Madras issued a statement on the COVID-19 cases. "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... Our capacity to quarantine (with room service) is limited, and this limits the rate at which we can bring back scholars to the hostels," Hindustan Times quoted the statement as saying.
The Times of India reported "students say overcrowding at the only operational mess led to the spread of the infection".
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“'Earlier, we could do with just one mess as there were fewer students on campus. But after students returned, the mess was crowded,' a research scholar said. 'Mess is not a place where we wear our masks. So all of us were vulnerable. Four workers in the mess have tested positive,' she said," The Times of India reported.
"These kinds of localised clusters are expected. We suspect common mess, where students get together, to be the cause and advised the administration to close the mess and deliver the food directly to the residents. We have asked the institute to conduct tests on everyone and Chennai Corporation will be assisting them in disinfecting the hotspots,” Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan told The New Indian Express.
