Principals of government and government-aided colleges in Tiruchi region could not take part in an interaction with the Higher Education Secretary through video-conference on Monday due to a technical glitch.
The principals were expected to provide details of the facilities that they had provided for COVID-19 quarantine during the interaction. There was a difficulty in continuing the interaction with more than 100 participants. Hence, the Higher Education Department later restricted the participants to college heads in and around Chennai, a principal of a government college here said.
The college heads in the region were reportedly told by officials that the interaction with Higher Education Secretary will take place at a later date.
Barring Jamal Mohamed College in Tiruchi, no other institution was used as a quarantine facility in the region. The office of the Regional Joint Director of Collegiate Education had, last month, sought details of buildings and sanitary infrastructure from institutions in the region, indicating that the facilities could be put to use by the district administrations during the lockdown period for containment of COVID-19 virus. The colleges, in turn, furnished information about the classrooms in academic blocks, the number of rooms in the hostel, the toilets in each building and other such particulars.
However, only the playgrounds of some of the colleges were utilised as temporary vegetable markets by the district administration.
The National Centre for Disease Control has issued a series of guidelines to carry out disinfection of the quarantine facilities where people affected by the virus had been housed. Due to the potential survival of the virus in the environment for several days, disinfection of the buildings using anti-microbial agents has been advocated. The guidelines state that the lodging area, including furniture, railing, telephone, desks, curtain, should also be disinfected thoroughly with warm water and detergent solution.