Coronavirus scare at Hyderabad's major IT park

The coronavirus scare has unnerved the management and employees in a Hyderabad IT park on Wednesday with reports of a woman techie of a global firm becoming the second positive case in Telangana.

The offices of one MNC of Dutch origin – DSM - located in Raheja Mindspace, a conglomeration of over 20 buildings, in the city’s IT hub were closed by afternoon and its employees sent home.

The move was following a message the company has reportedly sent to its employees informing that one of their “colleagues in Hyderabad has a confirmed case of coronavirus.”

Other companies operating from the same Building 20 shut their office operations for the day and sent employees home.

A screenshot of an email purportedly sent by the woman’s company management to its employees is circulating on social media. “Our thoughts are with our colleague, who is doing relatively well and is being treated in quarantine,” the message said.

However, the Telangana state health minister Etela Rajender did not confirm the employee as a positive case. Earlier in the day, his department released a bulletin mentioning two suspected cases of Covid-19, whose samples were sent to NIV Pune for further testing and confirmation.

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One of the cases, the health authorities said, has foreign travel history to Italy. This case is being attributed as the woman employee.

The minister said, “It is not for the IT company or me to declare a case as Covid-19. The central government makes such announcements.”

On Monday, a 24-year-old techie working in Bangalore but with family in Hyderabad became the first coronavirus case in the state. He is said to be stable in Gandhi Hospital.

A video of employees leaving a company in Raheja IT Park in a rush is also making rounds on social media, amid rumours that several companies are evacuating their employees.

However, Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary, IT department stated that only one building in Mindspace Raheja IT Park had been shut down on Wednesday. In a press conference held along with Cyberabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar to quell coronavirus fears in the IT sector, the senior IT official cited the affected woman as DSM employee.

“It is wrong to say that the IT park is closed. Rumours, doubts in this regard are not correct. Only the ninth floor of one building number 20 has been affected.”

“The company has 350 employees but only 23 work in her section and they are advised isolation,” Ranjan said.

The IT official further informed that the woman’s husband working in nearby Purva Summit is also directed for self-isolation, while other employees of his British firm were given the Work From Home option.

Sajjanar cautioned the public on spreading rumours, even as a tweet claimed one employee in one Hyderabad branch of a major name in IT sector as another coronavirus case.

A global IT company operating from Raheja Mindspace sent out a mail and referring to the coronavirus case asked all its “associates working out of Building 20 to WFH until further notice” DSM mail also directed its employees to WFH.

“At this time, none of our associates are known to have contacted the virus. As a matter of abundant caution, we are closing our office for disinfection and sanitization,” the HR mail said.

Ranjan advised IT companies not to ask their employees to WFH unnecessarily, as it creates panic. He said that Building 20 would also operate normally from Thursday.

Speaking to DH, a techie with a top IT firm opined that WFH is a better option than working with a scare in the office, in such times.