A day after the IIT-Madras campus has been placed under temporary lockdown after more than 100 students and staff members of the institution tested positive for Covid-19, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday expressed his concerns advising students to take adequate precautions amid the pandemic

Upon gathering this information, Gehlot wrote on Twitter, “The news that in IIT Madras, 183 people tested positive for COVID-19 including students this month is worrying. There remains a grave risk of infection cases rising in gatherings.” The tweet added, “Due to health consideration of our students and risk of spread of coronavirus infection, we have still not allowed educational institutions in our state to open. For state government, health and wellbeing of all are paramount.”

According to the updates from IIT Madras, the technical institute has been functioning on limited capacity with only 100 percent of students in the hostels. As soon as a spurt in symptomatic cases was reported by some students residing in the hostels, the institute consulted the civic authorities and arranged for all students residing in hostels to be tested for coronavirus.

As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, till 08:00 IST, Tamil Nadu reported 76 new active cases making the total number of active cases of COVID-19 rise to 10,039. The number of new deaths are 14 taking the total tally to 11,909. On a positive note, the number of fresh discharges are 1,203 making the total rise to 7,78,081.