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Six staffers of two superstores test positive for COVID-19 in random testing

By Oonib Azam
May 11, 2020

Six staffers of two superstores in the Defense Housing Authority (DHA) and Clifton tested positive for the COVID-19 after the district administration conducted random tests.

The six infected persons are asymptomatic. On the directions of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, the deputy commissioner (DC) of south, Ali Sodhar, has started testing staffers of different marts in the district.

The staffers of two marts were tested on Saturday in which six were positive, while the results of the staff of two other stores are yet to come, as the tests were conducted on Sunday.

This exercise, the DC told The News, would continue on a daily basis. Meanwhile, Civil Lines Assistant Commissioner (AC) Rana Omer shared how the management of the marts had been advised to disinfect their stores and retest all of the staff. “The management of all the stores are on board and are very much cooperative,” he said, explaining that the rest of the staff will be retested by the respective store’s management and if they would require their assistance, the district administration and the health department would help them.

The staff will be retested because it is possible that after or before the testing was carried out, a corona positive might have infected a few more which they missed in their test, according to Sodhar.

As for the infected patients, the AC said most of the six asymptomatic positive cases were of middle age. “They have been put in home isolation,” he said, adding that the respective district administration had been informed about them.

For example, if a staffer from the District Central, who used to work in a superstore in the District South has tested positive, the respective District Central will take care of his home isolation, the AC explained.

As for the selection of superstores, Omer explained that they randomly selected them in their districts or towns and informed the store management the day their staffers were supposed to get tested.

Then a team of the health department goes to the store after 4 pm, when their customer operations have already ended. None of the store, he said, had been sealed, but advised to disinfect.

“Once the DC team will visit them, they will be allowed to operate,” he said, adding that they had been following about the retest as well. “We will keep a proper check and balance on the stores that have been tested,” the DC said, adding that the tests were being conducted on the direction the chief minister.

After Clifton and DHA areas, he assured that they would move towards Saddar, Garden and other areas of the District South. When asked if they would also test shopkeepers at small shops, he responded that they had started from the bigger marts as they had a huge clientele.

For now, our target is to test staffers of two to three superstores on a daily basis, he said, adding that later shopkeepers at smaller shops will also be tested randomly.