CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government had allowed final-year undergraduate students and post-graduate students to attend classes from November. Though the government allowed the colleges to function, it stated that students can attend classes on a voluntary basis.
Since 1 December, 71 students have been tested positive inside the IIT Madras campus and following that all faculty members, project staff members and research scholars have been asked to work from home. Students, scholars and project staff members staying on the campus have been advised to confine themselves to their hostel rooms and were subjected to RT-PCR tests. Till Wednesday, 1,104 individuals were tested and 191 have been tested positive so far in IIT Madras campus.
After two students were found with Covid symptoms inside the Anna University, Guindy campus, 550 were tested inside Anna University and six have been tested positive so far.
After the Covid outbreak inside the educational institutes, health secretary Radhakrishnan has written to all district collectors and Chennai Corporation Commissioner to monitor educational institutions and hostels. Higher education department secretary Apoorva has also instructed all the colleges and institutions to follow the SOPs issued by the government strictly.
Health Secretary Radhakrishnan, who inspected the IIT-M campus on Wednesday, said the students inside the colleges don’t follow the social distancing norms properly or wear mask when they are inside college mess. He added that now educational institutes have been instructed to arrange pick up facility at the canteens to avoid gathering of students in a closed place and instruction has been sent to all educational institutes to strictly adhere to the SOPs.