146 local co-workers of Gurugram’s second Covid-19 case tracked

The district rapid response team on Saturday identified 146 Gurugram residents who worked in the Udyog Vihar, phase 1-office of a trading firm where a 29-year-old

The district rapid response team on Saturday identified 146 Gurugram residents who worked in the Udyog Vihar, phase 1-office of a trading firm where a 29-year-old Delhi resident who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) was stationed. The patient had recently travelled to Thailand and Malaysia and is admitted at the Safdarjung Hospital.

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Of the 535 employees in the company, 146 live in Gurugram, 305 in Delhi (including the patient), 25 in Faridabad, 18 in Noida, 40 in Ghaziabad and one in Hyderabad, according to the district health department.

The Udyog Vihar Covid-19 case was confirmed on Friday. The patient is a resident of Uttam Nagar and a company secretary in the trading firm, who visited Thailand and stayed there from February 7 to 13, then travelled to Malaysia, and returned to Delhi on February 17. He was in the office for two hours the next day.

Rajiv Arora, additional chief secretary, health department, said, “It’s been a long time since February 18, when the patient last visited the office. As per the information provided by the district team, all employees are asymptomatic. Until now, the situation is under control.”

The district rapid response team received information about the confirmed Covid-19 case from the Delhi team of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme at noon on Friday. The team approached the employee’s office to take stock of the situation and get the contact details of other workers for screening.

“Friday evening, we received a list of more than 500 employees. The rapid response team was immediately put into action to contact all the Gurugram employees. Telephonic calls were made until 11pm on Friday and on Saturday morning to know the status of their health,” he said.

Considering the large number of employees, it was difficult for the team members to reach out to some of them. According to them, employees were wary of sharing their home address.

“Knowing that we were doctors, a lot of employees answered our questions nicely. But they were reluctant to share their home address due to privacy issues. We had to ask them to approach us in case they noticed any symptoms. Also, a few of them were rude and shouted at us without understanding the actual reason for the call,” one of the team members said.

According to Punia, the process of following up with other employees is critical to trace the contact history and prevent the contagion from spreading. However, the health department is yet to share the list of non-local staffers with its counterparts and will do so on Sunday. He said none of the employees mentioned any signs of illness when contacted.

The firm’s CEO, who preferred anonymity, said, “Our team leaders are also trying to reach the staff to know about their health. Office has been closed till March 11. Based on the directives of the health department, we might extend the dates further.”

Earlier this week, an employee of Paytm in Gurugram tested positive for coronavirus, after which the company closed its office here for 15 days.