IIT Madras shuts campus as students test COVID positive; in touch with civic authority, it stated

IIT Madras has shut down its departments, centres, labs and the library. They have cited a spurt in coronavirus cases in hostels, according to an email to students. The institute said to be working at 10% capacity. In fact, the Tamil Nadu Health Department has begun aggressive COVID-19 testing within the IIT Madras campus.

On Sunday, 71 people including 66 students and 5 staff members tested positive. On Monday, 33 more tested positive. So far 444 people have been tested out of the 700 present on the campus. Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan further told the media that the IIT-Madras cluster is “a lesson for all of us”. He further added, "The students have been quarantined and are reported to be in stable condition. There is no need to panic. Such clusters were expected following the lifting of restriction in the state," he said.

The prestigious engineering institute, in a media statement, said,

IIT Madras has been functioning on limited capacity with only 10% students in the hostels. All these students are research scholars who need to carry out experimental work in the labs. As soon as a spurt in symptomatic cases was reported by some students residing in the hostels, the Institute has consulted the civic authorities and has arranged for all students residing in hostels to be tested for COVID. To be cautious, all students have been asked to remain in their rooms. Packed food is being supplied to the students in the hostels.

IIT Madras has been permitting research scholars who need to do experimental work to return to campus since August in a calibrated manner; with a 14-day quarantine and testing of each returnee. Our capacity to quarantine is limited, and this limits the rate at which we can bring back scholars to the hostels.

Some Project Staff working on research projects and staying in the city have also been coming to work in the labs, once this was permitted by the government. A SOP is in place to determine how many scholars and project staff can work safely in each lab based on its size, ventilation etc.

IIT Madras has been constantly in touch with the civic authorities and has been following all protocols and safety measures. The Health authorities and the Institute are working closely to contain this outbreak by saturation testing and isolation of all positive cases. The Covid positive students are admitted in the Covid Care Centre in Guindy. All of them are reported stable and keeping well.

Though the state's COVID tally is nearing 8 lakh, active cases are at 10,115.