IIT-Roorkee emerges as the latest COVID-19 hotbed with 90 students testing positive

In a big development, a total of 90 students have tested positive for COVID-19 at IIT Roorkee in the last few days, IIT Roorkee media cell in-charge Sonika Srivastava has said. India is already facing a fresh surge of COVID-19 infections in the country.

The Haridwar district administration on Wednesday declared five hostels at IIT Roorkee as containment zones. The IIT Roorkee administration has directed students to isolate themselves in their rooms and has turned one of its hostels into a COVID-19 care centre, the institute's media cell in-charge Sonika Srivastava said.

"These students have been kept under observation," Sonika Srivastava said. Five hostels have been sealed. However, online classes of the institute have not been disrupted, she added. Srivastava made it clear that the institute was strictly adhering to all the COVID-19 guidelines of the state government.

"The institute has about three thousand students, of which around 1,200 students live in these five hostels. At present, all students are being treated in hostels. The students who were preparing to come to the IITs, have been stopped till the next orders. All the students present on the premises have been instructed to take precautions," said Sonika Srivastava.

Three buildings on its campus, including Katley Bhawan, Sarojini Bhawan and Kasturba Hostel, have been declared containment zones, the control room officials said.

Meanwhile, Uttarakhand has reported 787 new COVID-19 positive cases on Thursday, taking the cumulative count to 1,05,498. Dehradun, Haridwar and Nainital are the worst-hit districts.

Earlier on Monday, the Jodhpur campus of IIT reported 70 cases, including 54 students, prompting district health authorities to seal the premises after declaring it a containment zone.

Ahmedabad campus of the Indian Institute of Management and the IIT Jodhpur campus was also sealed after recording several COVID-19 cases in the past few days.

(With Agency inputs)