IIT-B campus records its first Covid-19 death

Less than a month after the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) campus at Powai reported its first Covid-19 case after the wife of a staffer tested positive, another employee who was tested positive succumbed to the disease on Thursday.

In a post shared on Friday evening, IIT-B director Subhasis Chaudhuri shared that the coronavirus took its first toll on campus. “This is a big loss to the IIT-B community and has been a big jolt that despite many precautions and the community’s help in maintaining the campus free of the virus, it found its way,” stated the director.

“The staffer worked in the administrative wing and even though he had a house on campus, he lived outside the campus for the longest time. He entered the campus only a few days ago and his tests came positive two days ago,” said A K Suresh, deputy director of the institute.

He added that the staff member died late on Thursday and the municipal officials were informed.

“The BMC officials have taken care of sanitisation and requesting quarantine to whoever was in contact with the deceased,” he added.

The institute stated that they have been very strict about keeping their campus safe for its residents, including over 5,000 staff members and less than 100 students.

“We are sure this staffer did not contract the virus from the campus because he had entered the campus only a few days ago and was already showing symptoms of the virus,” added Suresh.

In the first week of May, IIT-B authorities confirmed that the wife of an employee who worked as a health worker in a government hospital and had likely contracted the virus from a Covid-19 patient. Her husband, who is an IIT-B employee and their two children were quarantined while the wife was moved to a hospital for recovery.