9 PCS officers test +ve in Punjab

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 8

Nine PCS-cadre officers, including two Additional DCs and five SDMs, have tested positive for Covid-19. The PCS Officers Association had met here on Friday. Official sources said the 16 officers who had attended the meeting had been advised self-isolation.

• Also read: Bathinda Judge referred to PGI
• Four more succumb to Covid in Punjab

  Vini Mahajan, Chief Secretary

  Matter of concern

  It is a matter of grave concern that so many frontline officers have been infected. The second command has now taken over the work to ensure that the public is not inconvenienced.

This has set the alarm bells ringing as these officers had been in touch with senior IAS officers. Some of them, before they showed any symptoms, reportedly met Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan, who underwent a test and tested negative. A PCS officer with the Local Bodies Department had tested positive last week following which the department was shut and sanitised. With two Secretariat employees testing positive on Tuesday, the government has suspended the practice of issuing passes.

• Sangrur: Sending the administration into a tizzy, the Sangrur Civil Surgeon tested positive for Covid-19 and was admitted to Government Rajindra Hospital in Patiala. The Health Department has started contact tracing. The Civil Surgeon was admitted to the ICU of the isolation ward on Tuesday night after he complained of breathlessness and high fever, doctors at the hospital said. His condition is stable now.
• Exposing the lack of preparedness, the staff at the Civil Surgeon’s office alleged they had not been given masks and sanitisers and their office had not been sanitised properly.