Three more sanitation workers in Delhi test Covid +ve; total count at six

Meanwhile, a sanitation inspector with the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, who is also 55-year-old but doesn’t have any known pre-existing medical condition, has also tested Covid-19 positive.

Three more municipal sanitation workers tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday, taking the total number of such infected workers to six. One of them has died.

Both the municipal bodies said that the patients were not engaged in any disinfection or garbage collection activities in containment zones(Reuters photo)

A 55-year-old sanitation worker with the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), who lives in DDA flats East of Kailash and cleaned roads and picked up garbage in Bhogal, was admitted at AIIMS in a serious condition.

“My uncle is on ventilator support at AIIMS Trauma Centre. He is just five years short of retirement age and has liver-related problems. The corporation, considering his age, should have allowed him to stay at home. He should not have been summoned to work. He has a wife and three children to look after. If something happens to him, will the south municipality bear the financial burden of the family,” asked the nephew of the 55-year-old man.

Another sanitation worker with the south civic body, a 45-year-old woman, was admitted to Lok Nayak Hospital after testing positive for the virus. SDMC spokesman, Radha Krishan said, “Her husband, also a sanitation worker with us in the same ward of Tagore garden, tested negative for the virus on Thursday. However, after she tetsed positive, he has been called in for a test again. Their nine co-workers have been asked to go in home-quarantine. The man is a resident of Mangolpuri.”

Meanwhile, a sanitation inspector with the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, who is also 55-year-old but doesn’t have any known pre-existing medical condition, has also tested Covid-19 positive. Around 40 people, who worked under him, were sent on home quarantine on Friday.

“On April 16 he developed a fever and cough and we immediately advised him to go on leave,” said one of his co-workers over the phone. They all worked in Rohini Sector 16 and 17 areas.

Both the municipal bodies said that the patients were not engaged in any disinfection or garbage collection activities in containment zones. “We are still trying to ascertain how he got the virus,” north body commissioner, Varsha Joshi, said.

However, leaders of safai karmchari unions said that the corporations are risking their lives. Delhi Safai Karamchari Association president, Sanjay Gahlot, said, “It is shocking that we are still being made to mark our attendance physically with a pen on a register or by thumb impression. Imagine if one person has the virus, he will end up infecting everyone who signs that register.”

The north body commissioner, Joshi, said, “It’s a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), we have asked all of them to wash their hands with soap before and after signing the register.”