Coronavirus : Students at DU dorms worried

Room-1013 of Shaheed Sergeant Zahurul Haq Hall at Dhaka University, a four-bed room, is home to some 30 students, mostly freshers and sophomores; many crowd on the beds every night, while some have to take the floor.

Aside from this crammed "gono" room where students have no chance to turn around in their sleep without encroaching on a fellow, a large number of students also live on the corridors amid an unhygienic atmosphere, a situation that makes them potentially vulnerable to any type of contagious disease.

"We are living in an environment where any type of virus can spread most rapidly. It's a risky situation," said Anik, a resident of the room.

"We are trying to remain alert, but maintaining hygiene in a crammed room like this is tough, because a large number of us stay together," he said.

Like Anik, over 3,500 students living in the gono rooms of 18 dormitories of the university express such concerns in the wake of the first confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in the country.

Surja Sen Hall has the highest number of gono rooms, 21, housing over 500 students.

While the government has taken several measures to prevent any possible spread of coronavirus, many residential students fear that they are exposed to the easily-transmitted virus amid poor precautionary measures of the university administration.

They expressed dissatisfaction over the authority's lack of preparation, and said the steps by the university and dorm authorities are limited to posting cautionary notices.

This correspondent visited all the gono rooms at 12 male dormitories, and found a large group of students in each, crammed in extremely unhygienic conditions.

Several students demanded that the authorities should suspend all academic activities and keep the university shut to prevent spread of Covid-19.

"You know the conditions of the gono rooms. We struggle to sleep at night as it is. And now this new virus has us worried," said a fresher of Hazi Muhammad Mohsin Hall.

"Many of us want to go home, but cannot as our examinations are underway," he said, preferring not to be named.

He also said hall authorities only distributed leaflets and pasted notices on boards.

Another first-year student at the dorm said university authorities should take the matter seriously and take preparation accordingly.

Sohanur Rahman, a resident of Bangabandhu Shiekh Mujibur Rahman Hall, said, "We earlier saw that the university authorities failed to control dengue outbreak inside the campus. And this time, if any student gets infected with coronavirus, it would be very tough to contain its spread."

At a time when other countries are closing down universities and schools, authorities of DU should also declare the university's closure immediately for the sake of prevention, he said.

DU authorities, at a meeting of the provost committee on Thursday night, took a set of plans to prevent coronavirus if it breaks out on the university campus.

As part of the plans, they have advised forming smaller crowds at events marking Mujib Borsho, the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and Independence Day.

They also said sufficient and uninterrupted water and hand sanitisers would be supplied at all student dorms.

Meanwhile, a press release of the university said that DU medical centre will be kept ready for a potential viral attack, and those having cold-related issues will be given special treatment there.

The meeting decided to discourage teachers pursuing research or higher studies abroad from returning home for the time being.

Foreign residential students attached to Sir PJ Hartog International Hall, who are currently not in Bangladesh, have been asked not to return to the country until further notice.

Moreover, they were instructed to go into self-quarantine if any of them returned to Bangladesh from abroad recently.

All dorm authorities were also asked to hang cautionary posters.

AUTHORITIES NOT WORRIED YET

DU Vice-Chancellor Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman said they urged the students not to panic and contact their hall provost in case of any urgency.

Asked if they are considering  suspending academic activities, Proctor Prof AKM Golam Rabbani said they are not thinking about it for the time being. 

"We are alert and ready to provide any sort of help if any student falls sick. If any student gets infected with the virus or the overall situation of country deteriorates, then we will consider it [closure of the university]," Prof Rabbani told The Daily Star.