Pizza delivery boy tests positive, 72 families quarantined

New Delhi, 16 April 2020 [Fik/News Sources]: Seventy-two families have been told to go in to self-quarantine after a delivery boy working for a famous pizza chain tested positive for COVID-19, a District Magistrate of South Delhi said on Wednesday.

The 72 identified families are residents of Malviya Nagar, Hauz Khas area in in Delhi’s South District.

According to DM B.M. Mishra, a delivery boy from a famous pizza chain in Malviya Nagar area tested positive on Tuesday, following which the authorities immediately decided to quarantine 16 of his colleagues at the outlet. A detailed trail was mapped out to identify each house where food was delivered by the outlet.

In the period of 20 days, he delivered pizza at 72 locations. 

The delivery boy is now undergoing treatment at a hospital, while 17 other delivery executives who used to work with him have also been put under quarantine and are being monitored on a daily basis.

“We have found that 72 houses had taken delivery from that outlet and hence everyone has been told to follow precautionary measures and be under self- quarantine,” Mishra told IANS.

He added that there was no need to panic, as he had informed all the delivery boys to use masks and follow the safety measures while executing a delivery. But the decision to send all contact persons to quarantine was ‘necessary’ as a precautionary measure.

Some of the orders from this outlet were also made through food delivery giant Zomato, which said that while all colleagues of the delivery boy have tested negative. As a precautionary measure, the restaurant suspended operations.

“All the co-workers of the said rider have tested negative and as a precaution, the restaurant where the rider worked has suspended operations,” a statement by Zomato said.

Dominos Pizza said the incident doesn’t have anything to do with them and has also issued a clarification.