Mumbai: The coronavirus has finally found its way to the seat of power in Maharashtra, Mantralaya. On Monday, the first working day at the headquarters of the state government, five people are reported to have tested positive. One of them is a doctor in the ambulance stationed at Mantralaya for medical emergencies. State government officials were tight-lipped about this development.
According to reliable sources in Mantralaya, five persons were found positive in the afternoon. One of the infected is an employee in the public works department, another is the ambulance doctor, while the remaining three are workers engaged in the cleaning of Mantralaya. They have been shifted to quarantine facilities, according to the source.
Will Mantralaya now be a containment zone? As per the current norm, if three or more patients are found in a building or society, the state government announces that a 3km area in the radius of the affected building becomes a containment zone.
Once an area is declared thus, it is sealed, and nobody can enter or leave the building. Contact-tracing of all those found positive is undertaken. The family members too are checked and asked to quarantine. Generally, the area is sealed for at least 14 days. The question is whether the same guidelines will apply in this case.
Will the government take a dose of its own medicine? Last week also, a worker engaged in cleaning was found positive. But the discovery of five positive patients in one day, has jolted the state government and health machinery.
Since one of the patients is an employee working in Mantralaya, he is likely to have come in contact with many people in Mantralaya, though it is currently working at 50 per cent staff strength. The doctor is also likely to have checked and treated many people in and outside Mantralaya.
