All students of the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH), who tested positive for the coronavirus during the last few days, had taken both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, officials said. As many as 120 students and staff have tested positive for the virus during the last one week on the campus located at Kandi in Telangana’s Sangareddy district.
IITH officials said on Thursday, January 13, that only double vaccinated students were invited to the campus as part of stringent measures to combat COVID-19 spread. "We have 112 positive cases among the students at the moment. All of them have been isolated into separate isolation areas. Almost all the reported cases are either mild or asymptomatic and are showing good signs of recovery within 4-5 days," a statement said.
IITH currently has 211 rooms for isolation and this number will be increased based on the requirement. The institute has suspended all offline activities and the semester is being conducted in completely online mode. Around 600 unaffected students have already vacated the campus. The authorities are in the process of converting the vacated hostel blocks into isolation facilities.
Six well-qualified medical doctors and nine staff nurses are serving the IITH community 24x7 on a rotation basis. Four additional staff nurses have been recruited exclusively for monitoring the COVID-19 cases, the statement said.
Food and medicines for all the COVID-affected students are being delivered directly by the attenders following the necessary safety protocols. Primary and secondary contacts of those testing positive are being quarantined for two days and are being advised to undergo testing if symptomatic, it said. IITH said that strict restrictions are imposed at entry and exit gates to contain the virus spread.