CHENNAI: A 36-year-old man working as a food delivery staffer for Swiggy tested positive on Tuesday for COVID-19. His father, a 66-year-old lung cancer patient, who tested positive for the virus on April 22, died on Wednesday morning.
The son, whose test results came on Tuesday, was working in Chennai till April 22 as a food delivery staffer and had been quarantined since April 23 after his father tested positive for the virus. Officials are now tracking the contacts of the son.
It is suspected he contracted the infection from his father who in turn is suspected to have got it while undergoing treatment in a cancer hospital in the city. He was one of the six patients who got the infection in the cancer hospital from another patient who was referred there for chemotherapy sessions from the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
Confirming the death, Dr K Koladaswamy, Director of Public Health, said, "The patient died around 6.30 am."
The patient was shifted to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital from the cancer hospital after he tested positive for COVID-19 on 22 April.
Health department officials subsequently quarantined his family members and took the samples for testing. The test results that came on Tuesday showed that the son of the deceased is positive for the virus.
The city corporation has prepared a list of 64 houses that the man has made deliveries to in the last 10 days and contact tracing is underway.
When contacted, a Swiggy spokesperson told Express that they are working with health authorities and extending cooperation in all possible ways.
A statement released by them said, “As per the latest update, we are relieved that his brother and 5 other family members have all tested negative and have been cleared and are currently quarantined for safety. Following our predefined protocol, the delivery partner was immediately quarantined as soon as the incident was discovered and he is currently in the good care of health authorities.”
”We are committed towards supporting the delivery partner through this period. We have been working with local health authorities to support them in any way needed. As part of several measures to mitigate the risk of transmission and ensure social distancing, we disabled cash payments in Chennai before the lockdown, strongly encouraged contactless delivery and installation of Aarogya Setu app, have been checking for mask usage through technology and are using our network of restaurants to test delivery partners for symptoms,” the statement added.
(With inputs from Nirupama Viswanathan)