IIT Jammu returns to online classes after 18 test positive for COVID-19 on campus

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Jammu has decided to conduct all classes online after 18 staff, students and faculty members at the institute tested positive for COVID-19 during a precautionary Covid testing drive held on the campus recently.

According to IIT Jammu, the administration at the institute has been conducting periodic COVID-19 testing on the campus to avoid further spread of the virus.

RT-PCR tests were conducted on 300 people last week on the institute’s campus. Of these 300, a total of 18 members of the faculty, staff and the students were found infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

All these Covid patients are in quarantine as per the protocol and have reported mild symptoms, the institute said in a statement. The patients were kept under medical supervision, it added.

The IIT Jammu campus is currently under sanitisation. Most of the students had left the campus for semester break in December, authorities from the institute said.

The institute will conduct all classes online and the staff and the faculty members will continue to work from home until further notice. Authorities from the institute said that all the students, faculty members and staff members in IIT Jammu were vaccinated against COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the Covid task force in Jammu met under the chairmanship of chief secretary Arun Kumar Mehta and reviewed the public health response and various mitigation measures being put in place for effective containment and mitigation of the infection in Jammu and Kashmir on January 12, 2022.

Mehta appealed to the public to not let their guard down as the Omicron variant of the virus has a high rate of transmission and can infect a larger group of people over a short period of time.

Jammu & Kashmir has so far reported more than 3.45 lakh cases of COVID-19 and the active caseload has crossed the 4,500-mark.