Five employees of Odisha Assembly test positive for COVID-19

Bhubaneswar: As many as five employees of the State Legislative Assembly, Odisha, tested positive for COVID-19, informed Assembly Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro today.

“At least 12 employees had attended a committee meeting in Assembly early this month. Five of them tested COVID-19 positive and test report of remaining employees are yet to come. All have been sent for home isolation,” Patro told media.

Earlier, the members, who were present at a meeting of Assembly Standing Committee held on July 2, had undergone COVID test after Nilagiri MLA Sukanta Kumar Nayak and Salipur legislator Prashant Behera were found Corona positive this month.

All the MLAs were sent on home isolation and their test report came negative.

Similarly, the employees, who had attended the committee meeting headed by MLA Debi Prasad Mishra, were asked to go for COVID-19 test to detect infection.

“After one member was found COVID-19 positive, I had asked all the employees, who were present at the committee meeting, to undergo the test. Obeying the order, the Secretary and another senior official went for test, but remaining employees did not get their test done. Later, they were strictly instructed to follow the order to enter into the building following which they agreed for the test. Out of 12, the test report of 5 employees confirmed positive and they have been asked to remain under home isolation to contain spread of infection,” Patro said.

Following detection of COVID cases in Assembly, the building will be sanitised again. The office will open on August 4 after lockdown that ends on July 31.

Worth mentioning that 3 elected members to Odisha Assembly have been detected COVID-19 positive so far. Initially, two legislators — Sukanta Nayak and Prashant Behera — were tested positive. Later, Remuna MLA Sudhanshu Sekhar Parida was confirmed positive for coronavirus.

First, Salipur legislator recovered from the deadly virus. On July 15, Nilagiri MLA was cured from the infection. Recently, Remuna MLA has also recovered from infection. He had come in contact with Nilagiri MLA at a condolence meeting for Balasore Sadar MLA Madan Mohan Dutta, who died last month.

Also Read

Comments are closed.