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Ministries sanitise as employees test Covid-19 positive
As employees in several ministries have tested positive for the coronavirus disease, ministries are trying to take steps to control the spread of the pandemic by calling fewer staff, ensuring social distancing, and regular sanitization.
With the number of cases of the coronavirus disease in Delhi continuing to rise, the corridors of government haven’t been spared, causing some consternation among officials.
For instance, on Monday, officials at the law ministry reached Shastri Bhawan, where their office ids located, only to encounter a circular that said three more of their colleagues had tested positive for Covid-19. That added to three other cases, including that of a joint secretary, that had already been reported.
“There was concern among a lot of us. It seems even in these top offices, the attempt to control the pandemic are not proving very successful. So of their own initiative around twenty law ministry employees went and got themselves tested in a Delhi hospital. Their results are yet to come,” said an official who asked not to be named. HT couldn’t confirm this and it isn’t immediately clear how they got around guidelines and infrastructural bottlenecks that make testing in the capital a testing exercise.
Still, the law ministry is better off than the labour ministry in the neighboring Shram Shakti Bhawan in Lutyens’ Delhi.
An official memorandum released by the labour ministry on Monday carried a long list of employees of the ministry who had tested positive: 22 in all. “It is like a case of community spread within the ministry,” said the official cited above.
Several other ministries in the venerable Shastri Bhawan and government departments have had their corridors sealed and offices sanitized with employees, and their drivers or relatives testing positive.There have been many such cases of indirect contact -- the driver of a joint secretary in the culture ministry or the daughter of an employee in the social justice ministry
The coal ministry saw the death of a section officer due to Covid on May 27.
On Sunday, a key official responsible for the government’s communication outreach, Principal Director General of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) K S Dhatwalia tested positve and was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Ministries are trying to take steps to control the spread of the pandemic by calling fewer employees, ensuring social distancing, and regular sanitization.
The department of administrative reforms and public grievances issued a circular detailing the steps that need to be taken. The circular took note of the rising number of cases among government servants and also the instances of deaths.
It suggested washing hands every half an hour, disinfecting electrical switches, door knobs, elevator buttons, wearing face masks and not calling anyone even with mild cough to office. Other ministries too are trying to take precautions yet the last few days have been quite testing.
“The situation is not pleasant at all. However, there is the compulsion to carry on the work. We have to take it in our stride, it is now like an occupational hazard. Often bureaucrats as they make policies are accused of not knowing ground realities. Now with so many cases in our buildings, at least, we can’t be accused of not knowing the situation on the ground,” said another official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
