Corona enters Telangana CMO, Jagan’s Peshi

Even as the Telangana government has been relentlessly battling to contain the spread of Covid-19, the infection has now entered the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).

A CMO staffer working in the Metro Rail Bhavan was tested positive for the infection. Recently, the employee’s son who visited Maharashtra was tested positive for coronavirus. It is learnt that the employee has contracted the virus from his son. The CMO went into a tizzy after the employee contracted the virus. Following this, the CMO employees were asked not to report to work. The government has sanitised the CMO. Dr Rajiv Sharma, Chief Advisor to Government of Telangana as well as the Chairman of Telangana State Pollution Control Board, has been directed to oversee the sanitisation efforts. Samples of around 30 employees of the CMO were taken to conduct corona tests.

Most of the employees working the CMO are believed to be senior citizens. The CMO has been sealed for sanitisation after the employee tested positive for the coronavirus. In view of this, the state government had decided to close the CMO until normalcy is restored.

In Andhra Pradesh too, Secretariat, the seat of governance, has turned into a hotspot of corona infection. The state Secretariat located at Amaravati has reported five more COVID-19 positive cases. The official driver of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s peshi was tested positive for the corona virus along with five others.

On Saturday, two official drivers attached to the Planning department and CM’s peshi, an employee of industries department, a data entry operator of RTGS in CM’s block were tested positive for Covid-19. Meanwhile, in the state Secretariat, Blocks 3 and 4 were completely shut as two employees working in different departments tested positive for the virus on return from Hyderabad. AP Secretariat Association president K Venkatarami Reddy said the two blocks were fumigated and other employees who moved closely with the two patients have been requested to go in for self-quarantine.

AP has seen a surge of Covid-19 cases over the last few days. On Saturday, the state reported 210 fresh cases taking the tally to 4,460 with 73 deaths.