Covid-19 cluster identified at IIT-M, 12 test positive

A Covid-19 cluster was identified at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) on Thursday with 12 persons testing positive for the novel Coronavirus, who are stable and are doing well, the government informed.

The Health Department said saturation tests are being conducted on campus. While 385 samples were taken today, as many as 1,500 tests will be conducted in the next few days.

This is the first time that a cluster is being identified at the IIT-M campus after the third wave of Covid-19 infections. The identification of the cluster comes a day after the government asked district collectors to follow up on six points, including ensuring mask compliance, vaccination, test, tracing, and treatment.

Principal Secretary (Health) Dr J Radhakrishnan wrote to district collectors highlighting that daily cases in Delhi have increased to 632 on April 19 as compared to 82 on April 4, noting a similar trend in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

Though Tamil Nadu is reporting less than 50 cases a day for the past few weeks, Radhakrishnan said isolated cases are still getting reported and the district machinery should monitor the trajectory of cases and test positivity rate at district and sub-district levels. He asked them to follow up on six points such as the use of masks and follow-up of Covid appropriate behaviour, vaccination, medical preparedness and hospital admissions, RT-PCR testing, tracing and treatment, and whole genomic sequencing.

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