Workers account for 46% Covid-19 cases in Solan

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, July 19

After the move to permit ingress of industrial workforce backfired with an alarming spike in Covid-19 cases in the state’s industrial hub of BBN, the district administration has made Covid-negative test report mandatory for workforce before induction.

Industrial workforce has contributed 46.18 per cent cases in Solan district. The flip-flop of the state government since July 6 over the inter-state movement of industrial workforce has created an unmanageable situation in the BBN area, where 211 Covid-positive cases have been detected in the past 11 days.

This has substantially enhanced the testing of contacts of positive cases, burdening the scant health staff and putting monetary stress on the government. Two industrial units — Sara Textiles, Nalagarh, and Wrigley India Pvt Ltd, Baddi — have emerged as super spreaders as more than 120 cases have been detected from their workforce.

Solan District Magistrate KC Chaman said: “The labour brought by the industrialists or contractors from outer states will be kept in seven-day quarantine facility arranged by them and they will be inducted only after securing a negative Covid-19 test report. An undertaking stating that all inductees are healthy, have no contact or travel history to hotspots in the last over 28 days among other compliances to the laid protocols, will have to be furnished by them to the local administration.”

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