Haryana: Shahabad sugar mill worker tests positive for Covid-19

Jaskaran Singh | TNN | Updated: May 1, 2020, 20:45 IST

Kurukshetra health department officials working in Shahabad sugar mill colony containment zone in district.

KURUKSHETRA: A 52-year-old male worker of Shahabad sugar mill, who suffered chronic respiratory disease tested positive for Covid-19 at PGIMER, Chandigarh on Friday morning, informed Kurukshetra deputy commissioner (DC) Dhirendra Khadgata.
Kurukshetra DC said, "we received the information from PGI, Chandigarh in the morning on Friday about a resident of Shahabad sugar mill colony testing positive to Covid-19."
"There are around 150 houses in sugar mill colony which is established on the mill campus and the residential area has been sealed after declaring it as a containment zone. While the sugar mill campus spread over around 100 acres is also sealed and declared as buffer zone", added DC Khadgata.
Kurukshetra civil surgeon Dr Sukhbir said, "A 52-year-old man of Shahabad sugar mill suffered chronic respiratory disease Asthma and he was taking regular treatment from PGIMER, Chandigarh. Recently, the patient went to PGIMER for treatment on Thursday, where the doctors collected his sample for Covid19 test on the same day and he tested positive on Friday."
Giving details about tracing of his contacts in Shahabad, Dr Sukhbir said, "We have traced a total of 15 close contacts including 6 family members of this patient. The samples of all 15 persons have been sent for Covid-19 testing on Friday. The area has been sealed and a door-to-door survey is initiated to sanitize the residents living in Shahabad sugar mill colony."
Shahabad sugar mill to remain closed until mill, workers sanitized
Giving details about the activity of Shahabad sugar mill, Kurukshetra DC Dhirendra Khadgata said, "The sugar mill will be closed either by today evening or by tomorrow morning after clearing existing lot of ingredients. The mill will be kept closed for three to four days and sanitization of entire mill premises will be conducted during this period. Samples of all the sugar mill workers will be collected for Covid-19 testing after the mill is closed. The further decision would be taken accordingly to keep the mill close or open depending on the reports of its workers."
"If all the tested workers report negative for Covid-19, we will start the mill operations with a condition that no outside driver will be allowed to enter and only the mill drivers will take the sugarcane inside", added DC Dhirendra.
For the convenience of farmers, movement orders to be issued for other sugar mills in the region
"In the meantime, keeping the farmers’ interest in view that they do not suffer loss, I have talked to a senior ACS officer and we would be issuing movement orders to the farmers so that they can directly take their sugarcane to two other sugar mills in the region including Yamunanagar rather than bringing it to Shahabad", said DC Kurukshetra.
On Friday, Shahabad Co-operative Sugar Mills Limited managing director (MD) Sushil Kumar also wrote a letter to MD Haryana Sugarfed stating, "After a manufacturing chemist of Shahabad sugar mill tested positive for Covid-19 at PGIMER, Chandigarh on Friday, the sugar mill campus has been declared as containment zone. Due to this a decision has been taken to keep the sugar mill closed for three days. The mill presently possesses around 6 lakh quintal sugarcane for crushing, and due to ongoing crushing session the farmers associated have also harvested the sugarcane which is ready in their fields. Therefore, it is requested to transfer our incoming sugarcane to sugar mills at Yamunanagar and Bhadson, Karnal, till further orders."