Even as the Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to people not panic following coronavirus scare, the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi on Friday asked its students to leave the hostel rooms till March 31 with the exception of foreign students and PhD scholars.

The rooms have to be vacated by Sunday night.

According to an email sent by IIT-D Assistant Registrar Mukesh Chand on Friday, all students of B.Tech, M.Tech, M.Sc, MBA and other courses are to leave the hostels by midnight on March 15.

The email added that students were allowed to leave their stuff locked in their rooms. "The students are required to lock their rooms properly before leaving the hostel and fill the entry/exit register of the hostel concerned and the mess rebate form," the email said.

"This also applies to students currently living in Nalanda, IP Apartments and off-campus (Katwaria Sarai and Ber Sarai)," the administration added in an email.

Relief was extended to international students and those who were enrolled in PhD programmes, that too, "in case their research is in a crucial stage." Such students are allowed to stay back. But for that, the student would have to get prior permission from their supervisors.

Over 70 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in India.

The coronavirus outbreak was first reported in December last year in Wuhan city of China. The disease has affected more than 100 countries and has been declared a pandemic by World Health Organisation (WHO).