A 19-year-old food delivery agent has tested positive for the coronavirus, prompting authorities to quarantine a total of 89 people, including 72 residents in houses of South Delhi where he delivered items, NDTV reported on Thursday.
In the last 15 days, the employee had delivered food to 72 families in Hauz Khas, Malviya Nagar and Savitri Nagar. “These families have been home quarantined and are being monitored,” South Delhi District Magistrate BM Mishra said. “Those in home quarantine are asymptomatic. Unless a positive case comes, we feel that transmission hasn’t taken place. We’re finding out details of his past 30 days.”
The teen, working for a restaurant in Malviya Nagar, has been admitted to the government-run Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.
Seventeen more delivery agents who came in contact with the patient have been quarantined at a facility in Chhattarpur. Officials suspect the agent may have got the virus while delivering food to an infected family as he does not have any travel history.
On Wednesday, food delivery company Zomato said that it had been made aware that a restaurant employee who had tested positive for the coronavirus “had delivered food in the past to a few customers” in Malviya Nagar area in Delhi. “Some of these orders delivered by the restaurant staff were placed on Zomato,” the company said in a statement. “We are not sure whether the rider was infected at the time of delivery.”
Zomato said all the customers of the employee have been contacted by the Delhi government authorities, adding that the restaurant where the rider worked has suspended operations.
The company added that all the co-workers of the affected employee have tested negative.
Delhi has recorded 1,578 coronavirus cases and 32 deaths so far, according to the health ministry data.
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