Ministries sanitise as employees test +ve
NEW DELHI: With the number of cases of the coronavirus disease in Delhi continuing to rise, the corridors of government haven’t been spared, causing some consternation among officials.
On Monday, officials at the law ministry reached Shastri Bhawan, where their office is located, only to encounter a circular that said three more of their colleagues had tested positive for Covid-19. That added to three other cases, including that of a joint secretary.
“It seems even in these top offices, the attempt to control the pandemic are not very successful. So of their own initiative around 20 law ministry employees got themselves tested in a Delhi hospital. Their results are yet to come,” said an official who asked not to be named. HT couldn’t confirm this and it isn’t immediately clear how they got around guidelines and infrastructural bottlenecks that make testing in the capital a testing exercise.
Still, the law ministry is better off than the labour ministry in the Shram Shakti Bhawan. An official memorandum released on Monday carried a long list of employees of the ministry who had tested positive: 22 in all.
Several other ministries in the venerable Shastri Bhawan and government departments have had their corridors sealed and offices sanitized with employees, and their drivers or relatives testing positive.there have been many such cases of indirect contact -- the driver of a joint secretary in the culture ministry or the daughter of an employee in the social justice ministry
The coal ministry saw the death of a section officer due to Covid on May 27.
On Sunday, a key official responsible for the government’s communication outreach, Principal Director General of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) K S Dhatwalia tested positve.
On Tuesday, PTI reported that
Disinvestment secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey tested positive and was under home quarantine. Following this, joint secretaries in the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) have gone into home quarantine.
Ministries are trying to take steps to control the spread of the pandemic. The department of administrative reforms and public grievances issued a circular detailing the steps that need to be taken. It suggested washing hands every half an hour, disinfecting electrical switches, door knobs, elevator buttons, wearing face masks and not calling anyone even with mild cough to office.