Delhi starts drafting rules for food delivery persons

The move has been necessitated due to a delivery person, working for a restaurant in Malviya Nagar, testing positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), following which at least 72 households have been placed in home-quarantine.

The Delhi government has started drafting safety norms for delivery firms and stand-alone restaurants to prevent further spread of coronavirus in the Capital. The move has been necessitated due to a delivery person, working for a restaurant in Malviya Nagar, testing positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), following which at least 72 households have been placed in home-quarantine.

Delivery persons wait to pick up orders from restaurants in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar. A delivery agent with an eatery in the area has tested positive for the coronavirus disease. (Amal KS/HT FILE)

The guidelines are expected to be released early next week.

Delhi chief secretary, Vijay Dev, on Friday directed the state health department to prepare a mandatory standard operating procedure (SoP), after taking cognisance of a report in HT that highlighted the absence of safety norms for eateries and their delivery persons.

“The HT news report has been brought to my notice. I am ordering the principal secretary (health) to lay down the rules immediately,” Dev said.

District magistrates (DMs), who are currently at the helm of all containment activities, had also demanded mandatory thermal screening of delivery persons at all eateries and issuance of fitness certificates by the employers on a weekly basis.

The Malviya Nagar incident has become a reference point for the DMs, as the Covid-19 positive delivery person continued to work despite exhibiting flu-like symptoms for almost a month. While the infected man is now being treated at the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality hospital in Tahirpur, at least 16 employees and the owner of Box 8 restaurant have been placed in institutional quarantine at a Chhatarpur facility.

“Most of the delivery persons are young boys, which means they could be asymptomatic for a long time. There’s also a fear of retrenchment due to which some, despite being ill, like in this particular case, continue to work,” said Nidhi Srivastava, DM (Central).

“The rules must make it mandatory for the employer to grant leaves with job security in case a worker linked with the eatery is showing symptoms of illness, even if it is not Covid related,” she said.

While larger food delivery chains and essential supplies providers have strict processes to ensure safety standards, smaller firms may go below the radar, senior civic officials said, highlighting the need for standardised norms.

To keep a check on compliance by the smaller firms, DM (South), BM Mishra, suggested that ASHA or anganwadi workers, who are part of the 13,742-strong Corona FootWarriors Containment and Surveillance Team across the city, be made nodal officers for health checks of workers in such eateries.

“These outlets need to declare to us that they are open and mention the number of workers engaged. We can even prepare a format for the fitness certificates. But, all this needs a set of rules,” Mishra said.

Officials in the health department said all the suggestions given by the DMs will be considered while drafting the rules. “If need be, we will also hold a meeting with the DMs to further fine-tune the policy,” a senior official, who did not wish to be named, said.