Hyderabad: Owner of a popular chaat bhandar in Koti tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday. Officials from the Health department suspect that the virus was transmitted from a private hospital where he was being treated for pneumonia. Around 20 primary contacts, all of them family members, were home quarantined.
According to the health department, following the relaxations given by the state government, the famous eatery opened on June 8. The 72-year-old owner had not visited the shop and had been staying at his residence near Sultan Bazaar’s Jain Mandir. He began to suffer from pneumonia, and on June 13 was admitted to a private hospital. While undergoing treatment, doctors noticed he also exhibited Covid-19 symptoms and sent his samples for testing.
On Monday, the 72-year-old tested Covid positive. “Since the patient did not step out of his residence during the lockdown period, the private hospital might be the source of his contracting the disease. The information was given to the hospital management to test the staff. As a precautionary measure all 20 primary contacts of the patient have been home quarantined and the eatery has been sealed,” a health department official said.
The family of the man has issued a clarification saying: “Our head of the family was a retired person who has not moved out of home since lockdown and has been infected via unknown source. There have been rumours spreading about our staff and other family members being infected. We wish to inform that there is nothing as such.
All members are safe. We always take utmost precautionary me-asures and follow the practices prescribed by The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) at our eatery. We have voluntarily shut our shop to safeguard our customers’ interests. We have chec-ked each and every emp-loyee for Covid-19 symptoms and found everyone safe and now we are self-quarantined!”
This is the second time since its inception that the eatery has been closed. The first time was after the bomb blast on August 25, 2007. It was one of the places where the bomb was placed, the other being Lumbini Park. Forty-four people lost their lives in the two bomb blasts.
