PUNE :
Three employees of a media house tested positive for Covid-19, after one of them showed visible symptoms of the disease. It is believed that the symptomatic patient, who works on the news desk, passed on the disease to two colleagues.
All three were admitted to the BMC’s Municipal Capacity Building and Research (MCMCR) centre in Powai last night. Thirty-seven of their others colleagues tested negative and have been put in quarantine for 14 days.
Vinayak Vispute, assistant commissioner, westward, said, “I got a call last night about three possible corona cases from a media house. We took them to the MCMCR building in Powai while 37 of their colleagues, who tested negative, were quarantined in a suburban hotel. One of their staff members had symptoms and the report indicated he was positive and had infected two other colleagues.”
Vispute added that the 37 employees were quarantined by the hotel itself, as they had been working from there during the pandemic. ‘They have not officially reported to the BMC,’ he said.
He added, “The media house had booked the suburban hotel for their employees and it is their call whether to continue their 14-day quarantine there or shift them to another location.’
He said the hotel has had all its staff members tested too. “All 57 staff members from the hotel tested negative and the hotel has been sanitised and disinfected,” he added.
The tests were done by a private lab, Thyrocare, which said the government had strictly instructed them not to share any information with the press as only the BMC or government could confirm the development.
Vispute had received a call Saturday night from the media house’s senior news editor. “I was told by the editor that the staff would be shifted from the hotel to some other location. They had requested the hotel to allow them to quarantine their staff on their company’s premises. The hotel will take a call on whether to keep them there for 14 days or allow them to shift to another location,” he said.