Chennai: The number of Covid positive cases in the IIT-Madras cluster crossed the 100 mark, with 32 more people testing positive, taking the tally to 111 on Tuesday.
The number of cases which stood at 55 on Sunday, rose to 79 Monday and samples of 32 more people returned positive Tuesday, taking the total caseload in the cluster to 111 in the last fie days.
The first case of the cluster was reported on 19 April. While two persons tested positive the following day, nine more were found to be positive on 21 April. There were 21 cases on 22 April followed by 22 on 23 April.
After five more persons tested positive on 24 April, 20 more have tested positive yesterday.
Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan, who inspected the campus and reviewed the testing process, told reporters that ‘we are testing students of 19 hostels and various other places on the campus. We are focusing on 26 places.’
‘Of the total 7,490 people in the campus, so far, we have tested 3,080 persons of which 111 were found to be positive so far. We have deployed a large team on the campus and will test up to 2,000 samples’, he added.
Of the 111 infected people, two were discharged from hospital. Among the remaining 109 persons, about 25 persons have mild symptoms and four had co-infections–one with typhoid, one person had dengue, another had chicken pox and one with low platelet count.
They were undergoing treatment in private hospitals, he said.
The positivity rate was 3.60 per cent. ‘This is locational positivity rate. There is no need to fear. Our preliminary analysis found that the cases surfaced from one hostel. Persons from 13 States and one from abroad had arrived,’ he
said.