IIT-M largest cluster in Chennai as 25 more test positive

Chennai: IIT-Madras has reported 25 more COVID-19 cases, including 22 cases on Saturday and three cases on Friday evening. So far, 55 COVID-19 cases have been reported among students and staff at IIT.

After the first case of COVID was reported on Tuesday, two cases appeared on Wednesday. Within the next 2 days, 32 new cases were reported. Over 1,400 samples have been collected, including 1,396 samples in government facilities and 26 in private facilities.

Health secretary J Radhakrishnan visited the patients and inspected the saturated testing being done at the campus along with officials from the Greater Chennai Corporation. He said that there are only 17 people admitted out of the total active cases in the city, with four admissions each in DMS and DME institutions, 6 patients in empanelled hospitals and three others in ESI Hospital.

There are about 56,520 beds in medical college hospitals, including 21,427 beds in DMS and DME institutions and 48,575 beds in empanelled hospitals.

“All positive patients at IIT are stable. There’s no need to panic over the clinical management of these patients. The achievement is to reach zero death rate,” he explained. “We’re following ICMR guidelines for the treatment and management of positive cases. The approved drugs are being used for treatment and there is no cause for concern on clinical management.”

The Health Secretary further added that we should focus on prevention than panic over the rise in cases. “People in IIT are now following the safety measures such as use of masks, social distancing and other procedures. We should not become complacent about following safety measures. There is no immediate concern due to these cases but nonetheless bed facilities, oxygen concentrators, medications and other facilities are kept ready in case of emergency,” he pointed out.