5 IIT Roorkee hostels sealed after 60 students test Covid positive

IIT Roorkee has turned institute’s Ganga Bhavan hostel as the Covid care centre for treating infected students under the supervision of district health department.

Five student hostels at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee in Uttarakhand have been sealed and declared containment zones after 60 students tested positive for Covid-19 over a span of two days, said IIT officials.

IIT Roorkee has also advised students at home not to return to hostels just yet. (Photo credit- iitr.ac.in)

Fifty-four students were detected positive on Monday followed by six more on Tuesday evening. The institute has asked students not to return from home to hostels till further orders.

“After the 60 students were tested positive in the institute, five hostels named Korle, Kasturba, Sarojini, Govind Bhavan and Vigyan Kunj have been sealed and declared containment zones by the Haridwar district health department. The institute at present has about 3,000 students, of which, about 1,200 are in these five hostels,” said IIT Roorkee media cell in-charge Sonika Srivastava.

She said all the students of the above-mentioned hostels have been asked to remain inside their rooms, where they were being provided with food and other requirements.

“The institute has turned its Ganga Bhavan hostel as the Covid care centre for treating infected students under the supervision of district health department. Apart from this, one guest house and another in-house establishment have been turned into quarantine centres for the first contacts of the infected students,” she said, and added that a committee has been formed to handle and manage the Covid-19 situation.

After detection the infection, the institute’s management has asked other students to stay back at their homes till further orders. Also, the classes are being held online only, said Srivastava.