IIT-Kharagpur students told to vacate hostels immediately after one person tests COVID-19 positive

IIT-Kharagpur has asked students to vacate hostels by August 23 after one of them tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday (August 19). At present, 300 students are living in the campus residence halls.  

A student at Kharagpur IIT was infected with COVID-19. The IIT Kharagpur authorities ordered students to vacate the hostel soon after the student tested positive on Wednesday (August 19). On behalf of IIT, all the students were asked to vacate the IIT hostel and go home by August 23, the circular issued by dean of IIT and the chairman of the Hall Management Committee stated in this regard.

During the lockdown, some IIT researchers and undergraduates stayed at Lal Bahadur Shastri and Madan Mohan Malviya Hall. Due to the lockdown, about 300 students were present in the hostel. But after a student tested COVID -19 positive, authorities do not find it safe to keep the students on campus.

When the pandemic started, IIT authorities made a significant decision to save the students from COVID-19. They gave the students a chance to leave the campus and go home before the lockdown started. At that time about 9,000 students went home. The rest of the students stayed at the IIT campus.

The authorities of IIT took all the necessary precautions to save the students from being infected with COVID-19. Only one of the four gates of the IIT facility was left open and the other three gates were closed. Strict security is maintained to monitor those going in and out of the campus. A lot of restrictions are imposed on exiting the campus in accordance with special guidelines issued. The staff members of the mess are even forbidden to go out of the campus to prevent COVID-19 infection.

Online curriculums have already been introduced, labs have been closed and campuses have been shut. The semester results were announced on the basis of internal assessment without examination with the decision of the IIT authorities. The sole purpose of all this was to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection.

Amidst all such preventive measures being taken, a student was infected with COVID-19. According to sources, the infected student would have dinner in a private mess with others. It is suspected that the student may have contracted infection from the mess. The IIT authorities said, “In this situation, it is not possible to keep the students on campus.”