COVID-19: Delhi govt plans to conduct tests on people engaged in delivering essential services

The Delhi government has decided to conduct tests for COVID-19 on people engaged in delivering essential services like delivery of food, milk and other items, officials said on Thursday.

The move comes after a pizza delivery agent tested positive for coronavirus in south Delhi.

It has been decided to conduct COVID-19 tests on people engaged in essential services like delivery of food, milk and other items, as soon as the city government receives rapid anti-bodies test kits, they said.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Delhi on Wednesday stood at 1,578 with 32 deaths.

The 19-year-old pizza delivery agent had tested positive for coronavirus infection on April 14. A total of 72 families whom he delivered pizza to have been put under home quarantine, B M Mishra, district magistrate of South Delhi, earlier said.

"In view of this incident, we are considering that all those involved in home delivery of food are put through clinical screening so that those showing symptoms are stopped from visiting homes," Mishra told PTI.

The pizza delivery agent was feeling unwell for some time along with a persistent cough since the third week of March. Later he approached a hospital where he tested positive, said another official.

The 17 first line contact of the infected man, including his colleagues, have been put under quarantine at an institutional facility at Chhatarpur, Mishra said.

The 72 families in areas of south Delhi, including pockets of Malviya Nagar and Hauz Rani, have not shown any symptoms of the infection but will be tested if they do, he said.