As many as 72 families have been placed under home quarantine in a locality in South Delhi after a pizza delivery boy tested positive for novel Coronavirus.
Over 17 other pizza delivery agents linked with the infected person have also been placed under institutional quarantine, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain informed on Thursday.
“A delivery boy from a famous pizza chain in Malviya Nagar area tested positive on Tuesday, following which the authorities immediately decided to quarantine his 16 colleagues at the outlet. A detailed trail was followed to identify each house where food was delivered by the outlet,” BM Mishra, District Magistrate, South Delhi was quoted as saying by India Today.
“We have found that 72 houses had taken delivery from that outlet and hence everyone has been told to follow precautionary measures and be under self- quarantine,” Mishra said.
The delivery agent, who delivered pizzas in south Delhi till last Sunday until he fell ill, has been admitted to the government-run RML hospital.
According to the DM quoted by NDTV, the 19-year-old had delivered to 72 families in areas like Hauz Khas, Malviya Nagar and Savitri Nagar.
The delivery boy doesn’t have any travel history, say officials, who suspect he may have caught the virus while delivering to an infected family.
The restaurant where the rider worked has shut the branch for 14 days.
Meanwhile, food delivery giant Zomato, in a statement, has said that it has been made aware of a restaurant employee testing positive for COVID-19 infection.
“Some of these orders delivered by the restaurant staff were placed on Zomato. We are not sure whether the rider was infected at the time of delivery,” it said.
The food delivery service further added that it is leaving no stone unturned to make sure its customers, delivery partners and restaurant partners are safe.
“COVID-19 could happen to anyone – and it is near impossible for all of us to completely isolate ourselves, especially when we need outside support for essentials such as food…We believe that none of our riders should and would knowingly keep working if they knew they were infected with COVID-19,” said Zomato.
https://x.com/ZomatoIN/status/1250490786896121856
Delhi so far has 1,578 Coronavirus cases and 32 deaths. All nine districts of the national capital have been marked under COVID-19 ‘red zone’.