TENKASI: Thirty employees, including 21 men, who were sent back from Chennai by a popular jewellery shop, tested positive for Covid. The employees had been working in two different branches of the jewellery shop; one in Thyagaraya Nagar and another in Tambaram.

Speaking to TNIE, district health officials said: “All of the infected workers had first returned to their native villages from Chennai in March. Since the showroom forced them to rejoin duty by June 8 threatening them of termination from job and non-payment of outstanding salary, the workers returned to Chennai. They had gone in July first week through various modes of transport. But the company sent them back citing ‘excessive manpower’ as reason.”

They added that the workers’ mere one-week stay in Chennai was the cause for the infection. “They complained that their employer did not take any preventive measure against Covid in the hostel and the showrooms. Afraid of losing job, most of them reached Chennai in vegetable-laden lorries without e-pass. The infected were shifted to the Government Headquarters Hospital in Tenkasi,” said the officials.