New Delhi: Over 400 Parliament staff members were tested Covid-19 positive ahead of the Budget Session, official sources said.
The officials said that 402 members out of the 1,409 Parliament staff were tested positive for the virus from January 4 to 8 following which their samples were sent for genome sequencing to confirm the variant, ANI reported.
“Close to 402 staffs were tested positive for Covid-19 from January 4-8 and all samples have been sent to genome sequencing for Omicron variant confirmation,” an official said.
The Parliament staff, as per an internal message, have been advised to follow the Covid-19 precautions as per the government’s guidelines.
“There is a consolidated list of 200 Lok Sabha and 69 from Rajya Sabha and 133 allied staff who have tested positive, but we all need to take proper precautions,” the message read.
The above list does not include those who were tested for Covid-19 outside the Parliament premises.
Earlier, several employees of both Houses of the Parliament were put in isolation after they came into contact with their infected colleagues during work.
Several Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha officials are also in isolation.
The Budget Session of Parliament usually begins in January last week every year.
Issuing new guidelines amid the surge in Covid-19 cases, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) had in its recent order directed all the government offices to run under 50 percent of staff capacity and the rest will work from home.
In tune with the same, the Central government taking the Covid-19 Omicron variant seriously exempted its staff from biometric (daily punching) for attendance.