Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Madras has temporarily shut down all its departments, centres, labs and the library after 71 people, including 66 students tested positive for coronavirus since December 1, 2020. The students have claimed that the institute’s decision to run only one mess is the reason for the large scale spread of coronavirus.

Notably, this is said to be the first big cluster, the city is witnessing after the campuses reopened for final year students. According to reports, 774 students are on the campus and most of those who were infected were residents of two hostels — Krishna and Jamuna.

“IIT Madras has been functioning on limited capacity with only 10% students in hostels. As soon as spurt in symptomatic cases was reported by some students residing in hostels, the Institute arranged for all students residing in hostels to be tested for COVID”, the institute said in a statement.

Moreover, IIT-M has asked its staff to work from home and anyone with the symptons like fever, dry cough, sore throat, diarrhoea, loss of taste/smell, or any other symptoms have been requested to get in touch the hospital officials.

Earlier on Sunday, 32 fresh coronavirus cases were detected, following which the Tamil Nadu government instructed that all the students be tested for the virus infection. According to officials, the students who had returned to the campus were quarantined for two weeks, but the quarantining capacity is limited.