BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Assembly premises will remain shut till July 31 after some employees tested Covid-19 positive.
Announcing the decision, Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro said that after MLA Sukanta Nayak was infected with Covid-19, swab samples of all employees were collected for testing. Out of them, five have tested positive, he said.
Nayak had attended a standing committee meeting of Assembly in the first week of July. However, all other MLAs, who attended the meeting, have tested negative.
Meanwhile, Polsara MLA Srikant Sahu has tested positive. With this, four MLAs have so far tested positive.
The State Forest Headquarters - Aranya Bhawan - has also been sealed temporarily for disinfection after two forest officials tested positive for Covid-19.
"A Divisional Forest Officer who tested positive three days ago had visited the headquarters after his new posting last week. Subsequently, another staffer from the office tested positive. To prevent the spread of the virus further, the office has been sealed temporarily. It is likely to be reopened after sanitisation on Monday," said a senior wildlife officer.
He said around eight to 10 officials and staffers, including some in the rank of Additional PCCF, have been put in home quarantine for coming in contact with the patients.
The issue has now put the forest officials a fix as the office work had already been affected after the government asked offices to work with half of their strength with all social distancing measures in place to keep the spread of the virus in check.
BMC officials dealing with the contact tracing of Covid patients couldn't be reached for their comments.