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In IIT-Madras Covid spike, positive cases rise to 183
As many as 953 residents on campus have been tested.
IIT-Madras, which has turned into a Covid-19 hotspot, added 79 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, taking the total number to cases to 183 in December. As many as 953 residents on campus have been tested. “With this testing has been completed,” said a spokesperson for the institution. “Next round of testing for everyone will be after ten days.”
Until Monday, 104 people had tested positive - 87 are students, 16 staff from the mess and one resident. They were all being treated at King’s Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research. “We had X-ray and CT-scan of RT-PCR positive patients (as of Monday) and they are all mild and stable,” health secretary J Radhakrishnan told HT.
Incidentally, the health secretary’s family members were also treated for Covid-19 at the King’s Institute and discharged in August. He shared this with the students and residents who are under quarantine at the campus to allay their fears.
“We decided to test everyone which may increase numbers but it will prevent the spread,” Radhakrishnan said. We have once again alerted all collectors and education institutions to be careful in closed spaces like hostels and common mess which seem to be a source of spread to avoid an IIT-like situation. Two fever cases have also been reported in Anna University.”
Sporadic cases were reported in early December which eventually led to a spike. The food is now being sent to their rooms. The institution has temporarily shut down its academic departments and research labs. Nine hostels on campus have reported positive cases and a high number of cases were predominantly reported from two hostel units named Krishna and Jamuna.
A postdoctoral student who has been in the campus hostel since March was one of the hundreds of students who was tested on Monday and she was awaiting her results. “I’ve not gone to the mess because it is overcrowded as only one mess was open. I’ve been ordering from outside,” the student said, not wishing to be named. “A second mess was opened after December 9. Another reason is that day scholars were coming into the campus from outside so there are possibilities that they were exposed.”
On Monday, the Covid-19 positive cases crossed 8 lakh in Tamil Nadu. The virus has so far infected 8,00,029 people and killed 11,909. A total of 7,78,081 people have been discharged.
In a statement issued late Sunday, the institute said that it has been functioning on limited capacity with only 10% students in the hostels. “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,” their statement read.
