Two railway staffers test COVID-19 positive, DRM office shut

Two employees of the South Western Railway’s Bengaluru division tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. Officials shut down the divisional office for sanitisation after it emerged that one patient had visited it.

Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Ashok Kumar Verma said the closure of the office became necessary as an employee at the Hebbal railway station who tested positive had entered the personnel department in the building.

“He came to the railway hospital on Wednesday to get himself checked for a knee-related problem. He also entered the divisional office to submit papers in the personnel department. As a precaution, we closed the divisional office and carried out intensive sanitisation of all the four floors,” he said.

The railway hospital had referred the employee to a private hospital for an operation. Prior to the operation, the private hospital tested him for COVID-19 and he was found positive, Verma told DH.

The DRM said 24 people, including doctors and paramedics at the railway hospital and his family members, were identified as his primary contacts and tested for COVID-19.

The test results are awaited and they have been advised home quarantine.

Meanwhile, the four floors of the DRM office were disinfected on Friday. Officials said it would reopen only on Monday.

The second staffer

The second staffer is a 46-year-old senior section engineer from the signalling and telecommunication department. He lives in Hindupur, Andhra Pradesh, and travels to Bengaluru every day. He was admitted at the railway hospital two days ago with COVID-19 symptoms.

“His sample was taken and sent for testing, and the report has been received just now. He is being shifted to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases for further treatment. We are trying to trace his contacts,” the DRM said in a message.