Noida authority employees engaged in essential services demand COVID-19 tests

Employees of Noida authority engaged in providing essential services have asked the administration to test them for coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Employees of Noida authority engaged in providing essential services have asked the administration to test them for coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

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Noida employees association (NEA), a group of all staff members of the authority, had met the senior officials of the authority over the issue and had submitted a letter last week demanding camps to conduct random Covid-19 tests for the employees.

The Noida authority staff is engaged in the distribution of food to migrant workers and others who were rendered jobless after the imposition of the nationwide lockdown apart from delivering vegetables, groceries in containment zones, and carrying out sanitisation drives across the city.

NEA said many employees are worried about their safety after at least six employees, including three accountants, one senior official, and two assistant accounts, showed symptoms of fever and cough (both indicators of possible Covid-19 infection).

“We have demanded the administration to conduct random tests of our employees who are possibly exposed to the infection. Many staff members are going daily into hot spots to carry out their duties and they can get infected easily because they are also engaged in disinfecting houses, public spaces, and common areas there. We hope the district health department will start random testing of the employees,” said Dharmendra Sharma, vice-president, Noida Employees association.

There are at least 5,000 Noida authority employees who work with multiple departments including horticulture, water, sewer and health department.

NEA president Rajkumar Singh said he hopes that the district administration will soon start testing all the employees.

“Senior officials have communicated our demands to the district magistrate and other officials in the district health department. We hope that random Covid-19 for our employees will start form Wednesday,” said Singh.

Senior district admin officials said the health department cannot conduct Covid-19 tests for all employees because of limited testing capacity. As per protocol, they will first examine people for Covid-19 symptoms and if they feel that someone needs to be tested, they will collect the samples of the suspected patients.

“The employees should surely be tested. We will raise the request with the chief medical officer,” said Suhas LY district magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar.