IIT Bombay asks students to get vaccinated after campus reported 5 new Covid-19 cases: Report

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay has asked students, teachers and staff to get vaccinated at the earliest after recording five new Covid-19 cases in the campus in the last two weeks, according to the Hindustan Times report.

Stating that the campus reported three Covid-19 cases on October 24 and two cases on November 6, the institute said, “Three out of these cases were hostel resident students and that has resulted in several students, who are high-risk contacts, being subjected to quarantine. The institute’s contact tracing team has noted that most recent cases had a history of travel within Mumbai or out of town,” HT reported.

IIT Bombay had started calling students back to the campus in a phased manner. On October 20, Maharashtra colleges resumed offline classes after over one and a half years. The Maharashtra government gave permission to resume physical classes for the students and asked institutions to strictly follow the COVID-19 SOPs issued by the authorities.

“There has been some hesitancy on part of some senior teachers as well as students who are worried about the side effects of getting vaccinated. But this decision could lead to us putting lives of those around us in danger, which we need to avoid,” said the official, according to the report.

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Subhashis Chaudhuri, director, IIT-Bombay had said in October that the institute will conduct exams in hybrid mode after Diwali break.

Thane has reported 155 new cases of coronavirus, raising the infection count in the Maharashtra district to 5,67,157, while two more deaths pushed the toll to 11,549, an official said on Thursday. These new cases and fatalities were recorded on Wednesday, he said, adding that the COVID-19 mortality rate in the district stood at 2.03 per cent, PTI reported.