Kharagpur: After a student at IIT-Kharagpur tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, college authorities asked all other students to vacate the hostels by August 23. At present, 200 to 250 students are living in the campus residence halls.
In a notification posted on Wednesday, the authorities announced that the residence halls would be sealed. “In view of a COVID-19 positive case detected in one of the halls, and since the student took dinner in the private mess, we are compelled to seal all the halls of residence. Accordingly, all students who are presently staying in the campus must vacate the halls latest by August 23 and proceed to their hometowns,” read the notice, reported The Indian Express.
IIT-Kharagpur Registrar BN Singh told The Indian Express that the infected student had been sent to Kolkata. “The student was staying in one of our hostels. He was staying with five to six other students in the entire hall. He has been sent to Kolkata for treatment. Meanwhile, all halls have been sealed. We feel that the rest of the students in that hall have not been infected. However, we will carry out sanitisation work in every hall,” he said.
The classes at IIT Kharagpur will be conducted online from September. Keeping this in view, the college administration had also asked its students not to return to the campus for the next semester.
“We do not want to endanger the health of our children and staff. Therefore, we have asked the parents not to send their wards to the institute till asked,” said a senior official. According to him, the institute will follow the advisories of the state and central governments on reopening campuses.