With five people testing positive for COVID-19 in Pune, two companies located in the city’s biggest IT hubs in Hinjewadi and Magarpatta evacuated and sealed some of their offices on Wednesday after a couple of their employees exhibited symptoms of the novel coronavirus infection.
The third floor office in a building (Tower A) of a multinational firm in Phase 1of the Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park in Hinjewadi was sealed after an employee showed COVID-19-like symptoms. A portion of Tower 7 in Magarpatta’s IT Park was evacuated and sealed after an employee with an IT firm with a travel history to Dubai showed similar symptoms.
A message sent by the Hinjewadi-based company to employees, said: “Because your safety and well-being remain our top priority, we want to share an important update relating to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. We have learned that one of our people who works on the third floor in Tower A has been tested for coronavirus and is awaiting those test results. We also want to make you aware that out of an abundance of caution, the third floor in Tower A will be extensively cleaned in a process that is based on cleaning recommendations from public health experts.”
It further said that the third floor would only reopen once the cleaning process was complete and that “common areas in Tower A will also be cleaned.”
Confirming the partial evacuation of Tower 7 in Magarpatta, Satish Magar, chairman and managing director of Magarpatta City, said the move was a precautionary measure given that the employee in question had returned from Dubai.
In a message to all the employees, the company said: “The employee has been quarantined and being provided medical [attention]. As a precautionary step, the office [in] Magarpatta City will remain closed. No employee should visit it. There will be deep cleaning there and we are in contact with concerned authorities to know if more employees need to undergo tests.” Mr. Magar said he has called a meeting with authorities from Noble Hospital to check if all precautions have been taken.
A number of IT firms in Magarpatta and Hinjewadi have urged their employees to work from home, with extensive sanitisation activities carried out on the premises of several others.
