Factories, workshops become breeding ground for Covid

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BQ— “We have found out high number of positive cases in factories during random sampling. Despite of repeated reminders to employers to test their employees, they didn’t oblige. Consequently, we had to start random sampling at the factories. I urge the owners to inform the authorities about migrant labourers. They should immediately isolate the suspected cases to curb the spread,” — Patiala Civil Surgeon Dr Harish Malhotra

Karam Prakash

Tribune News Service

Patiala, September 18

In the wake of 143 employees of a textile company testing Covid-positive last Monday in a random sampling, thousands of migrant labourers working in factories, workshops and mills have become a cause of concern for the Health Department.

Reason: A majority of employers have brought labourers from neighbouring states without any pre-testing or accounting them.

The Health Department claimed that employers had not informed them about the inter-state migration of labourers. Sources believe that the 143 cases were just a tip of an iceberg.

Spurred by the detection, the department is holding random sampling camps at factories every day to detect cases. Shockingly, whichever factory or workshop the authorities pick results in a big cache.

As per a Health Department insider, over 500 migrant labourers have already tested positive in September. Notably, there are about 1,050 factories in the district — including rice mills and brick kilns — which are registered under the Factories Act.

It is pertinent to mention that directions had been issued to factory owners last month to test 20 per cent of their staff on a weekly basis.

Patiala Civil Surgeon Dr Harish Malhotra said the high positivity rate was a matter of concern. “We have found out high number of positive cases in factories during random sampling. Despite of repeated reminders to employers to test their employees, they didn’t oblige. Consequently, we had to start random sampling at the factories. I urge the owners to inform the authorities about migrant labourers. They should immediately isolate the suspected cases to curb the spread,” he added.