BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has sealed the engineering section on its premises for 48 hours after two of its personnel tested positive for Covid-19.
All immediate contacts of the engineers including their family members and around 15 staff of the department have been put under home quarantine. Their swab samples will be sent for tests if they develop any symptom during the period.
The two Engineers, including an Executive Engineer, who had travelled to Sambalpur district on June 26 were found positive along with their driver in the last 24 hours.
Both the engineers were asked to undergo home quarantine only when one of them complained of fever on Tuesday. "Contact tracing is on. We suspect that they may have contracted the virus during their visit to Sambalpur," said an official.
After their return, they had attended meetings and are suspected to have come in contact with at least six junior engineers and a few contractors during their site inspection.
While the Engineering section has been sealed, the drainage division functioning from the same building may resume operations from Monday after sanitisation
of the workspace, sources said.
The issue has once again exposed the lapses in handling the situation by the BMC as question is being raised as to why the engineers were not quarantined
immediately after their return.
Earlier this week, the Civic body had also sealed the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) building for two days after two cases were reported.
BMC Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary couldn't be reached for his comment. However, BMC deputy commissioner for sanitation Subhendu Sahu said the officials
had been put in home quarantine since Tuesday. A decision regarding reopening of the engineering section will be taken on Monday, he said.
The Capital city reported 19 new Covid-19 positive cases in the last 24 hours taking the tally to 433.
The 19 cases include eight local cases from Badagada, Ghatikia, Bharatpur, Unit V, Jharpada, Sundarpada and Palaspalli and nine home quarantine cases from two private hospitals, a central government hospital, Pahala, Nuagaon and Baramunda.
The civic body has not been able to ascertain source of infection in the local cases.