IIT-Madras reports spurt in COVID cases, academic wings shut temporarily

Academic departments and the library have been temporarily shut at IIT Madras from December 13 till further notice following a spurt in Coronavirus cases with 71 infections reported (especially in the hostel) in the last few days.

The authorities have asked the faculty and students to work from home. In a statement, the premier educational institution said that hostels are functioning with only 10 per cent of their residents and that testing was undertaken for all after a few reported positive. Students residing in hostels are being supplied packed food, it said.

The IIT Madras has reportedly been allowing research scholars who need to take up experimental work to return to campus with 14-day quarantine and testing of each returnee.

Also read: Vaccination can start in Jan, normalcy by Oct, says Poonawalla

“We will attempt to increase our capacity to quarantine returning students since the government is releasing the hostels that they took custody to quarantine Covid-19 patients during the last seven months,” media reports said quoting the statement.

Coronavirus cases in Tamil Nadu and its capital Chennai, which was a hotspot recently, have substantially declined. On Sunday the state registered 1,195 cases with Chennai reporting 340 cases. Though the state’s Covid count is nearing 8 lakh, the active cases were 10,115 only.

Also read: India’s COVID active caseload drops below 4.85 L; daily new recoveries outnumber fresh cases