Hyderabad, July 18: The number of swine flu cases in Hyderabad has risen to 37 with one more person admitted to the special ward at Kondapur hospital in the city. The person, who had arrived from Kuwait, was sent to a hospital after an examination at the International Airport.
Even as the office of software company Google re-opened after two days’ closure, Hitech City witnessed a scare over swine flu as an employee tested positive at the IT company Mind Tree, while others demonstrated symptoms of the flu.
The situation had taken such a turn that the Hyderabad district Medical and Health officer, Jaya Kumari, had to be rushed to the office of the Mind Tree, for a counselling session with authorities and employees. “There is no need for any panic”, she said. He asked that only those employees who showed symptoms should be sent to the hospital.
The two-day holiday declared at Google’s satellite office in the city, had a psychological impact on IT professionals from different companies in the HITEC city area, with many employees rushing to the Government Chest Hospital to get themselves examined. Expressing his unhappiness over the action taken by Google in closing their office, doctors at the Chest Hospital said that such moves created unnecessary panic. K Subhakar, coordinator at the Swine Flu Nodal Center in Hyderabad, said that there was no need for Google to panic as it was not for the first time that IT professionals had contracted the virus.
Many techies returning from abroad (especially from the United States) have been found to be infected and have gone on to spread the virus. Many IT employees currently posted overseas, are delaying their return, till the swine flu threat declines.
-Agencies