The coronavirus pandemic has spooked top technical and research institutes of Dhanbad, with IIT(ISM) on Friday announcing the postponement of all official engagements as a preventive measure.

Through an advisory issued on Friday, IIT(ISM) director Rajiv Shekhar cancelled all conferences, seminars, workshops and professional development programmes till further notice and asked students, faculty and staff members not to organise any event involving the assembly of a large number of people.

The institute has also asked members and students to postpone foreign visits besides withdrawing all approvals to foreign travels.

“The cancellation charges for travel tickets, hotel bookings and visa processing fees can be claimed if the approval for the foreign travel has been obtained prior to this advisory,” the statement reads.

Any bookings made after the issue of the advisory won’t be eligible for refund.

“In case a student, faculty or staff member has to go abroad for unavoidable official purpose, a special permission will be required from the undersigned through the appropriate channel,” the advisory says.

A supplementary advisory, also issued by the tech institute on Friday, asked students who had gone home during the mid-semester break from March 8-15 to extend their stay if they felt unsafe about travelling back.

“The classes will be held as per schedule. However, the minimum attendance requirement of 75 per cent for the current semester has been waived off. The lecture notes will be uploaded online by the respective faculty members,” read the supplementary advisory, which also informed students about the pre online registration for the monsoon semester of 2020-21.

The IIT(ISM) had on Thursday advised students down with cold, cough and flu during their holiday break to stay at home till they made complete recovery.

“You will be given attendance waiver during the period of absence. Upon reaching the institute after getting fully cured, you need to furnish a medical certificate clearly specifying the period during which you were under treatment to avail the attendance waiver,” the statement issued on Thursday said.

Students have been advised to wash their hands frequently and contact the doctor at the healthcare centre of the institute in case of cough, cold or fever.

“All the advisories have been issued as part of the preventive steps in the wake of coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak across the globe,” the IIT(ISM) director said.

Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR), the premiere research laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, has also cancelled events that necessitated large gatherings.

The spring festival scheduled at CIMFR’s Digwadih campus and an Indo-French expert talk scheduled from April 22 in Bangalore have been scrapped.

Binod Bihari Mahto Koylanchal University (BBMKU) has also instructed the principals of all constituent, affiliated and BEd colleges to not allow any meetings, conferences or seminars till further orders.

A notice by the university further instructed principals to make proper cleanliness measures in their respective institutions.

Biometric attendance have been discontinued in colleges and employees have been asked to register their attendance manually.