26 more contract virus in IIT-Madras, total cases at 171

Chennai: IIT Madras reported 26 positive cases of Covid on Thursday pushing the tally of IIT cluster cases to 171. Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan along with Greater Chennai Corporation officials visited the IIT Madras campus on Thursday and inspected the measures taken at Taramani guest house isolation centre and Ganga hostel isolation centre.

Radhakrishnan said that all the cases are of the BA2 variant of Omicron and no cases of any other variant or XE variant have been reported in Tamil Nadu so far. "There are no other clusters in Chennai currently. As the cases of Covid are going up in northern parts of the country, it is important for all of us to wear masks and follow safety measures," he said.

All the patients who had tested positive for Covid are stable and do not require hospitalisation but have been isolated as part of the safety and management protocols. Currently, there are 168 active cases after 3 of them were discharged on Wednesday, and another 10 patients are expected to be discharged on Thursday.

As many as 6,650 samples have been taken, including 32 samples in private institutions at the IIT Madras campus and the case positivity stands at 2.6 per cent. Overall, there are 7,490 students at the IIT campus.

The officials from the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine said that surveillance and monitoring of the cases has been stepped up across the State, but no major outbreaks have been reported.