IIM Calcutta has decided to resume offline classes of the MBA executive programme after May 28 following a significant dip in Covid cases on the campus.
The institute had recorded 28 cases on May 14 among the students of the one-year residential programme. It switched to online classes from May 16.
Manish Thakur, the chairperson of the Covid task force on the campus, said the number of cases had come down to three only and they too would come out of the isolation period in a few days.
Classes will resume offline from next week following improvement in the situation, he said.
“The numbers have come down drastically to three only. These three students who are currently quarantined at the Tata Hall will soon come out. So, we have decided to resume the in-person classes after May 28,” said Manish Thakur, who is also the dean, new initiative and external research.
Sources on the campus said, 76 students are pursuing the residential programme and the remaining 58 students got their samples tested after Kolkata Municipal Corporation sent its mobile team to the B-school campus on May 16.
Apart from them, some of the employees of the IIM-C also got their samples tested.
An IIM-C official said repeated tests were conducted after the civic body set up a testing facility on the campus last week.
“The samples of those who finished their quarantine were also tested. Even after the repeat testing the count never exceeded 28. Now, it has come down to a negligible count, prompting the institute to resume offline classes,” the official said.
Earlier, the team from the office of the deputy chief medical officer of health (CMOH) took details of the cities the students came from.
Thakur said they were in touch with the doctors the corporation had assigned.
Those in the first-year are attending the summer internship and will start attending the in-person classes in the second-year from June.
The new batch of the two-year MBA programme will start attending classes from next month.
“Since there would be a fresh assembly of students with many coming from beyond Bengal, the institute has to remain alert,” said an IIM teacher.
In early January four hostels — Tata Hall, Ramanujan Hostel, Lake View Hostel and New Hostel — of the B-school was declared as containment zones after more than 50 students tested positive.