At least 28 employees of Zee News have tested positive for COVID-19, Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary confirmed on Monday, May 18. The development comes two days after a single employee of the news organization, who is a resident of Lakshmi Nagar, Delhi, contracted the novel coronavirus.
It is highly likely that the other 27 employees of Zee News caught the infection from their COVID-19 positive colleague while working at the office which is located in Sector 16A, Noida.
Sudhir Chaudhary issues official statement
The head-honcho of the media giant took to Twitter to inform about the unfortunate development. He mentioned that an employee was found to be infected with the fatal virus on Friday, May 15, post which the organization initiated mass testing of its workforce.
"So far 28 of our teammates have tested positive. Fortunately, most of them are asymptomatic and not complaining of any discomfort. We believe this is because of early diagnosis and pro-active intervention," said the Editor-in-Chief.
As a precautionary measure, the office building including the newsroom and studios have been sealed for sanitization and all the staff members are shifted to an alternative facility. "We are following the best practices to break the cycle and contain the infection, in coordination with all government and health authorities. All health protocols and official guidelines are being followed," added Sudhir.
Presently, Zee Media Corporation Ltd has a massive workforce of 2,500 employees which certainly increases the risk of the spread of COVID-19.
Here is the complete statement by Sudhir:
Delhi-NCR authorities on alert
The detection of an ample number of COVID-19 positive cases in Zee News has posed a fresh challenge for the already overworked health authorities of Delhi-NCR. Out of the 27 new patients, 15 are residents of Gautam Buddha Nagar i.e. Noida and Greater Noida while the remaining 13 are currently living in Delhi, Ghaziabad and Faridabad.
So far, the national capital has reported more than 10,000 positive cases of COVID-19 while the tally of Gautam Buddha Nagar is about to touch 300. On the other hand, the cities of Ghaziabad and Faridabad have more than 150 patients each.
