Four deaths in three days: Panicky AP secretariat employees seek WFH option

With four secretariat employees succumbing to Covid-19 in the last three days, government employees working in the Andhra Pradesh secretariat complex at Velagapudi in Amaravati are panic-stricken.

Worried over the serious situation, the secretariat employees association has on Monday requested the Jaganmohan Reddy government to allow them to work from home.

“In the last four days, around 40 employees of secretariat and their family members have tested positive for Covid-19. Further, we lost four of our fellow employees to the disease in the last three days. All the employees are in a panic situation as they live with their children, elders at home and are facing a lot of mental agony attending the office amidst the worsening situation day by day,” said Napa Prasad, general secretary of AP Secretariat Association.

The association representatives submitted a representation to the chief secretary Adityanath Das office on Monday, seeking work from home option.

“We request necessary orders permitting all employees of the secretariat to work from home as we have an effective e-office system for processing files or allow at-least 50 percent of the employees to work from home on rotation basis so as to get relief from the Covid-19 infections and also to break the chain (of virus spread),” the association said in its letter.

The state government had set up a Covid-19 testing facility and a vaccination centre later in the secretariat for the sake of employees.

On Monday, AP reported 5963 new positive cases from across the state and 27 deaths.