IIT Kharagpur has formed a team of student volunteers from those who have recovered from Covid-19, to coordinate with those quarantined at present.
The decision was taken at a meeting that director V.K. Tewari held last week with the representatives of the Technology Students Gymkhana, that represents all the students on the campus, said registrar Tamal Nath.
As part of this mechanism, a central pool of 20-odd student volunteers who have recovered, has been constituted to monitor the situation across the 20 halls of residence.
Under this central team, each hall has a group of volunteers consisting of 15-odd students who are monitoring that the distancing and safety protocols are observed within each hall.
Devaki Nandana Vardhineedi, the vice- president of the students’ body who is among those who have just recovered, said they were going to the quarantine facilities once a week to interact with those infected apart from being in touch over phone.
“Doctors have told me since I have just recovered I can visit the quarantine facilities once. Many of the students are in their second-year and they are away from home at this hour of crisis. So apart from telling them to follow the treatment protocols suggested by the doctors on the campus, we are telling them not to panic. We are supplying them medicine, clothes and other essentials,” said Vardhineedi, who is a fourth-year BTech student.
An IIT Kharagpur official said even as the cases were reported on the previous two waves, the enormity of cases have forced them to engage the students’ volunteers.
“During the previous occasions the hall management centre managed to contain the situation. This time from late December the cases picked up and have reached 200-odd by Monday. Some of the staff have also reported being sick. So we had to engage the student volunteers,” the official said.
“Besides, a student would love to open up before a fellow student.”
Sources said cases have spiked following a combined impact of the institute holding the convocation on campus on December 18, a section of students going to Calcutta to celebrate Christmas and close to 3,000 students being recalled between from December 26 to 30.
Another official said this time they were taking additional measures to contain the spread so the students were not required to vacate the hostels. In January alone as many as four central academic institutes — IIM-Calcutta, IIEST, Shibpur, ISI Calcutta, NIT Durgapur — have vacated the hostels so far to contain the spread.
Another IIT official said while these institutes have few hundred students, IIT Kharagpur has recalled close to 6,500 students and it would be difficult to send back so many students.
“Unlike on the previous occasions, we have not seen hospitalisation so far. The institute has augmented its quarantine capacity so 550-odd students can isolate. We don’t want students to vacate hostels,” he said.
Since the pandemic had set in March 2020, the institute had to twice vacate hostels. The halls that are reporting a high number of cases have extended the duration of “self imposed hall curfew”, due to expire today, up to January 15.
The curfew was imposed by the hall management centre to restrict inter-hall movement of the boarders, on December 31.