115 Families Isolate as Rashtrapati Bhawan Staff’s Kin Gets COVID

The families have been put in quarantine after a sanitation worker’s kin tested positive.

Rashtrapati Bhavan under high alert.

(Photo: PTI)

As many as 115 families residing at the President's Estate are under self-isolation as a preventive measure after a sanitation worker’s relative tested positive for coronavirus, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique issued Tuesday, 21 April.

“It may be clarified that till date no employee of the President's secretariat has tested positive for COVID-19 and the secretariat along with the local administration is taking all the preventive measures required under the government guidelines,” it said.

A COVID-19 positive patient from central Delhi, who was neither an employee of the President’s secretariat nor a resident of the President’s Estate, died on 13 April 2020 with co-morbidities at the B L Kapoor Hospital in New Delhi, the statement said.

After contact tracing of the deceased, it was found that a family member of an employee of the President's secretariat had been in contact with the deceased, it said.

The employee along with the family are residents of Pocket 1, schedule A area of the President's Estate.

As required under the guidelines, all the seven members of this family were moved to the quarantine facility at Mandir Marg on 16 April, the statement said.

"Subsequently, one of the family members who was in contact with the deceased tested positive. All other family members including the employee of the President's secretariat have tested negative," it said.

Following the instructions and guidelines of the authority designated under the Disaster Management Act 2005, read with Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, 115 houses in Pocket 1, schedule A area of the President’s Estate were identified for movement restriction and residents have been advised to remain indoors, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

"The residents of these houses are being provided doorstep delivery of essential commodities," it added.

Delhi Heath Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday confirmed that one positive case of coronavirus has been reported from the premises of the President's Estate.

"Yes, one case has been reported so far from the Rashtrapati Bhavan estate," he told reporters.

According to officials, the deceased is the mother of a sanitation worker employed in the Estate and of the person who has tested positive.

"The mother used to live outside the President's Estate. After she was tested positive, all her relatives were quarantined and their test was done. The test report came negative," an official said.

However, after the death of the sanitation worker's mother, initially around 25 families were under self-isolation. Now 115 families are observing self-isolation as a preventive measure, the official said.