chennai while both the health department and the iitm management were yet to identify the cause of infection students say overcrowding at the only operational mess led to the spread of the infection earlier we could do with just one mess as there were fewer students on campus but after students returned the mess was crowded a research scholar said mess is not a place where we wear our masks so all of us were vulnerable four workers in the mess have tested positive she saidon december 9 the management called for a fresh bunch of cooks and staff for the mess after ensuring all of them tested negative the following day the dining hall was closed and food was sent to students rooms academic zones including all departments and labs have been closed and disinfectedpublic health department noticed the cluster when 10 students were admitted to the institute of ageing at the king institute of preventive medicine in guindy with severe to moderate symptoms of covid19 the government hospital registers showed 25 admissions from iitm campus since december 1 we saw sporadic admissions but when a group of people were admitted on saturday we alerted officials most patients are recovering well said a senior doctormeanwhile a circular from the iitm registrar directed faculty members staff project staff and research scholars to work from home students staff and scholars staying on campus were advised to quarantine those with flulike symptoms were asked to go to the campus hospitaliit director bhaskar ramamurthi said after a spurt in symptomatic cases being reported by some students residing in the hostels iitm consulted civic authorities and arranged for all students residing in hostels to be tested to be cautious all students have been asked to remain in their rooms and packed food is being supplied to the students in the hostels he saidin a statement to the media ramamurthi said the institute has been functioning on limited capacity with 10 students in the hostels research scholars who need to do experimental work are on campus and project staff who are working on research projects visit labs for their work students who returned to hostels were quarantined for two weeks he said our capacity to quarantine with room service is limited and this limits the rate at which we can bring back scholars to the hostels he said