Food Delivery Personnel In South Delhi Likely To Be Screened For COVID-19

With 72 families quarantined after a pizza delivery agent tested positive for coronavirus in south Delhi, the authorities are considering clinical screening of all food delivery personnel in the area.

The 19-year-old tested positive for the virus on April 14. A total of 72 families he delivered pizza to have been put under home quarantine, said B M Mishra, District Magistrate of South Delhi.

"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 delivery agent was feeling unwell for some time and had a persistent cough since the third week of March. Later he approached a hospital where he tested positive for the disease, said another official.

Also Read: Is Ordering Food Online Safe? Doubts Grow After Pizza Delivery Boy Tests Positive

Seventeen first-line contacts of the infected man, including his colleagues, have also been quarantined at an institutional facility at Chhatarpur, Mishra said. 

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

The officials refused to share details of the people who came in contact with the infected man, saying it was yet to be ascertained as to how he contracted the virus despite not having any travel history nor having come in contact with any known coronavirus positive patient.

They said the booth-level teams were deputed to trace other contacts of the delivery agent.

Zomato, the online platform service, whose partner restaurant's delivery agent tested positive in this incident, said they were constantly training their delivery partners on safety and hygiene, in addition to providing masks to them.

"Fifty thousand plus restaurants which cover a majority of our order volume have set up hand sanitisation stations for delivery partners. We continue to ramp up our safety practices as we speak," a Zomato spokesperson told PTI.

Also Read: Pizza Delivery Boy Tests Positive In South Delhi, 72 Families Told To Self-quarantine

Many Delhiites on Thursday woke up to a barrage of messages on their WhatsApp groups strictly advising them not to order food from outside anymore.

"Our area is largely an open colony, so we cannot check everybody who is coming in. We have circulated the news clippings in the Whatsapp groups, with a message: ‘Bhai, thode din ghar ka bana hi kha lo. Fizool main quarantine hone ka koi faida nahi hai’ (Please for some days eat home-made food only, you won't be serving any purpose being quarantined due to this)," B S Vohra, East-Delhi RWAs Joint Front, told PTI.

"We have been talking about this news in the RWA Whatsapp group since morning, but we don't know how to stop this. The government can perhaps take some steps, or at least instruct us to deploy some measures," he added.

Vandana Thapa, a homemaker, said she used to ordered food online for her daughter.

"Today when I watched this news of the delivery agent getting infected, I made it clear to my daughter that we won't be ordering online from now on. She too understood and agreed," she said.

However, several outlets, including pizza giant Domino's and restaurants like The Baker's Dozen, Out Of The Blue and Deli By The Blue, reassured their customers by listing out the safety measures in place.

Understanding the current situation, we have taken some important measures for our staff and senior members and have made them stay quarantined at Hotel Le Sutra to maintain the utmost care and cleanliness discipline," said Rahul Bajaj, director and conceptualiser at Out Of The Blue and Deli By The Blue.

COVID-19 has infected more than 12,300 people and claimed at least 400 lives in the country.