Dehradun: A leading hotel in Rishikesh has been closed for 48 hours as a precautionary measure after 16 of its employees tested positive for Covid-19 in a day, an official said on Friday.
Sixteen employees of Taj Rishikesh Resort and Spa tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday, Narendra Nagar SDM Yukta Mishra said.
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The hotel has been closed for 48 hours during which it will be fully sanitised and its entire staff will be tested for Covid-19, she said.
People who may have come in contact with the employees of the hotel are also being traced, the SDM said.
Twenty-three of the hotel's employees have tested positive for the disease over the last 10 days, health department sources said.
Twenty-seven fresh cases of Covid-19 were reported on Thursday from Muni-ki-Reti area in Tehri district which include 16 from Taj Rishikesh Resort and Spa, eight tourists and three employees of an ashram.
Twenty-two tourists from Gujarat who had come in a bus on a 15-day tour of north India via Pushkar, Jaipur, Udaipur, Mathura and Haridwar had tested positive for the virus on March 23.
Rising cases of coronavirus at a time when Haridwar prepares for Kumbh which sees a huge gathering of devotees is a cause of concern for the state government.
The Uttarakhand dispensation has made it mandatory for devotees to bring a negative RT-PCR report not older than 72 hours or a coronavirus vaccination certificate with them.
Kumbh Mela is scheduled to begin on April 1.