Air India office in Delhi has been closed for two days after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19 coronavirus. According to reports, a peon at Air India office has tested positive for the deadly virus.
According to a report in NDTV, everyone, including the Chairman and Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola, will work from home, the national carrier said on Tuesday.
Earlier on Monday, five pilots of Air India along with two technical staff who had earlier tested positive for Coronavirus have tested negative for the infection. According to sources, the new results were obtained after a re-test was conducted on the positive cases under Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of the airline.
“The 5 pilots have tested negative for the virus during the re-testing,” an airline source said as quoted by IANS. It is suspected to be a case of faulty testing kit.
Air India, which is operating special flights under the Vande Baharat Mission to evacuate Indians stranded in foreign countries, have asked its pilots to undertake coronavirus test before they operate such flights.
Touted to be the largest evacuation exercise in the world, national carrier Air India is flying back nearly 15,000 citizens aboard 64 flights from 12 nations.
Recently, the Aviation Ministry headquarters was also sealed after one of its employees who had attended office on April 15, tested positive for COVID-19.
On Monday, Shram Shakti Bhawan in Delhi, which houses the Ministry of Power, was sealed after an officer there tested positive for Coronavirus on Sunday.
On May 5, a floor of the Shastri Bhawan, a government building that houses several ministries, located in Delhi’s Rajpath area, was sealed after a senior law ministry official tested positive for the novel Coronavirus.
Last month, the NITI Aayog building was sealed for two days after a director-level officer tested positive for Coronavirus.
India has reported a spike of 3,604 Coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 70,756 till Tuesday morning. As many as 87 deaths were reported in the same period taking the toll to 2,293.
Of the total number of infections, 46,008 are active cases while 22,454 people have been cured of the deadly virus.