Paytm employee in Gurgaon tests positive for coronavirus, confirmed cases rise to 29

Paytm employee in Gurgaon who recently returned from a vacation in Italy has tested positive for novel coronavirus, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The company has advised all its employees to work from home for the next couple of days while the Gurgaon unit gets sanitised.

With this, the total number of people infected with the coronavirus has gone up to 29 in the country of which 16 are Italian tourists.

Almost all of those who have been tested positive have a history to travel to Italy.

"One of our colleagues based out of Gurgaon office who recently returned from Italy post a vacation has sadly been tested positive for Coronavirus. He is receiving appropriate treatment. As a precautionary measure, we have suggested his team members to get health tests done immediately," a Paytm spokesperson said.

"We have also advised all our colleagues to work from home for a couple of days while we get our offices sanitized. However, there will not be any impact on our daily operations and Paytm services will continue as usual," the spokesperson added.

The Haryana Health Department said 956 people are under observation in the state, of whom 938 with travel history to affected countries are asymptomatic.

"18 passengers with travel history from affected countries in various districts like Ambala, Faridabad, Gurugram, Hisar, Kaithal, Karnal, Panchkula, Rohtak and Sirsa were admitted out of which 14 Passengers have been discharged as their result is negative for ncOv, however, they are still under surveillance at home as per protocol," the statement added.

"Two passengers from Gurugram and two from Faridabad are admitted," according to the statement.

"Till date, 32 samples have been sent out of which 29 found Negative for ncoV and result of three is awaited," it added.

Of the other 28 COVID-19 cases in India one is a 45-year-old man from Delhi's Mayur Vihar and six are his relatives from Agra whom he recently visited. All of the are being treated at the Safdarjung hospital in Delhi.

Another case was detected in Hyderabad who has been isolated.

Besides, 16 members of a tourist group from Italy and their Indian driver have been found infected with the virus. Sixteen of the tourists have been quarantined at the ITBP camp in Chhawla while an Italian man and his wife are being treated at Jaipur's SMS Hospital.

The other three cases were Kerala students who returned from China's Wuhan, the epicentre of coronavirus. They were treated and discharged last month.