Delhi: Five ‘high risk’ employees quarantined after senior engineer of NDMC tests Covid-19 positive

New Delhi: Two days after a senior engineer of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) tested positive for the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease, the district administration

New Delhi: Two days after a senior engineer of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) tested positive for the coronavirus (Covid-19) disease, the district administration quarantined at least five “high risk” employees of the civic body who had come in direct contact with the patient.

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According to officials of the New Delhi district administration, at least 19 employees of the NDMC came in contact with the senior engineer who tested positive on Saturday.

“Five of these 19 are among high-risk contacts and are being quarantined while 10 are those who had met the patient more than 14 days back. All the remaining contact persons have been instructed for self-observation of any flu-like symptoms (ILI Symptoms),” New Delhi district magistrate Tanvi Garg said.

The officials said CCTV footage was checked and staff members were also questioned about their meeting with the senior engineer. The exercise was conducted to ascertain the number of people who might have come in contact with the engineer and also the places where he might have visited.

“Samples of some of the staff members who came in contact with the Covid-19 positive official would be taken tomorrow. A survey regarding their travel history and contact history was also conducted,” the district administration official said.

If more samples test positive, the building might be declared a hot spot.

An order issued by New Delhi additional district magistrate D Karthikeyan said: “The medical officer in charge is directed to conduct contact tracing of the case...station house officer of the area shall ensure the implementation of lockdown orders and ensure that all contacts of the positive case, who have been recommended home quarantine, shall observe home quarantine strictly.”

A senior NDMC official, requesting anonymity, said over 50 employees were screened and a surveillance team of doctors also met the engineer on Sunday to know if the patient had any travel history and to ascertain the contact-tracing.

Officials said the senior engineer had been working during the lockdown period and had been “visiting the office till Wednesday and had also attended some meetings”.

NDMC officials said that last week, the senior engineer fell unwell and was taken to a dispensary, from where he was referred to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital where he was tested for the Sars-Cov-2.

He was engaged with the building maintenance division in the municipality and his office was on the 16th floor of the NDMC building.

The NDMC officials said that the entire building has been sanitised twice by the health department of the civic body.