Covid-hit Bengaluru railway office shut for sanitisation

The divisional railway manager's office in the city centre has been shut for sanitisation after a visiting employee tested positive for coronavirus, an official said on Friday.

"The three-floor DRM office has been closed for the day and all employees have been advised to work from home for sanitisation as one of our staffer who visited the office early this week tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday," senior divisional commercial manager Krishna Reddy told IANS here.

The DRM's office of the South Western Railway (SWR) is located adjacent to the Krantivira Sangoli Rayanna (KSR) main railway station in the city centre.

"Railway hospital staff is on tracing the primary and secondary contacts of the affected employee for testing and isolating them at the earliest," Reddy said.

The affected staffer works at the Hebbal railway station in the city's northern suburb.

The affected employee, in mid-50s, also visited the railway hospital near the station for a check-up as he had knee problem.

The railway hospital referred him to a private hospital for his knee treatment, where a Covid test on him turned prositive.

"The railway hospital staff who would have come into contact with the affected employee has also been tested and their results are awaited," said Reddy.

The railway hospital is also being disinfected.

The state's mini secretariat Vikas Soudha adjacent to the iconic Vidhana Soudha in the city centre has also been shut for sanitization after a government employee working in it tested Covid positive.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which is entrusted with the task of containing the corona virus spread, has already started sanitising a portion of the massive building in the city centre.

After an employee of the food and civil supplies department tested positive, all offices on the ground floor of the mini-secretariat were sealed and sanitised.

The city registered 17 fresh cases on Thursday, taking the total number of positive cases to 844. With 14 discharged earlier in the day, 384 have been cured of the infection, while 408 are under treatment.

Of the 114 Covid deaths across the southern state since March 10, Bengaluru accounted for a whopping 51 till date.