IIT Madras Shut Down Temporarily As 104 Test COVID-19 Positive On Campus

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT M) campus in Tamil Nadu’s capital Chennai has been shut down temporarily after over 100 students tested positive for the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan said that 104 students have tested positive for COVID-19 but all were doing fine. The campus has been shutdown since it has now been declared a containment zone.

The 104 who tested positive are out of the 440 samples tested since 1 December with 33 tests returning positive today (14 December).

Radhakrishnan said 20 per cent of the total tests had turned positive but there was no cause for concern. The Tamil Nadu government has begun aggressively testing besides tracing all the contacts.

Some IIT M canteen workers are among those who have tested positive.

IIT M officials were quoted as saying that the canteen could have been the source of infection as students crowded the mess.

Students complained that this was since the institute decided to run only one mess. Most of those who have reported COVID-19 positive out of the 773 students on the campus are from “Krishna” and “Jamuna” hostels.

Though students who had returned to the campus were quarantined for a fortnight, the institute faced problems as its capacity was limited.

Yesterday, IIT M issued an order to close all departments, including the library, until further notice. Until then, the faculty, staff and research scholars will work from home.

Students have now been asked to confine to their hostel rooms and food would be supplied to them there.