Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) has turned into a Coronavirus cluster with about 71 cases reported till date and some more are expected. The students allege the IIT-M's decision to run only one mess is the reason for the large scale spread of coronavirus.
There are a total of 774 students in the campus and most of those who were infected were residents of two hostels -- Krishna and Jamuna.
The institute has decided to shut down all its departments, centres and staff have been asked to work from home. Anyone with the symptoms like fever, dry cough, sore throat, diarrhoea, loss of taste/smell, or any other symptoms have been requested to get in touch with the hospital officials.
"An 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 concerning the SoP involving quarantine before releasing 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," it said.
The postgraduate students, research scholars and others have been asked to remain in their rooms with arrangements made to deliver food to their rooms.
32 new coronavirus infection cases were reported on Sunday and the Tamil Nadu government has directed that all the students be tested for the virus infection, as 66 students and five staff members have tested positive for coronavirus infection.
According to officials, the students who had returned to the campus were quarantined for two weeks, but the quarantining capacity is limited, but the infected once are recovering well.