Chandigarh seals education dept office, police HQ for 2 days; educational institutions closed till July 31

With over a dozen employees of Chandigarh Education Department at UT Secretariat testing positive for COVID-19, the Chandigarh Administration on Monday issued closure orders of all government and non-government colleges and educational institutions till July 31.

Heads of all educational institutions have been directed to ask the staff to work from home. However, the principals of colleges should ensure that online admission process and other activities related thereto are carried on smoothly and for that purpose required staff can be called at their own level, an official statement issued by Rubinderjit Singh, Director, Higher Education, Chandigarh Administration, states.

On July 5, panic gripped UT secretariat located in Sector 9, after some employees, who had cake while celebrating the birthday of a colleague, tested positive for the virus. Following this, the first floor of the building was sealed for sanitisation.

Taking preventive measures, the Headquarters of Chandigarh Police, which shares the same premises in Sector 9 was also sealed for two days on Monday to carry out sanitisation.

Manoj Kumar Meena, SP (Headquarters), said that since the employees of the police department and education department share the same canteen, which is located in the police headquarters, there was a need to sanitise the whole building as a precautionary measure. “The building is closed for two days, on Monday and Tuesday,” he added.

The staff has been asked to work from home. However, the police control room will work normally, Meena added.

Meanwhile, Chandigarh witnessed a spike in COVID-19 cases with 21 people testing positive for the deadly infection in one day, taking the count to 487. Chadnigarh has seen six deaths as of now while there are 80 active cases in the city.

Taking a serious view of the increasing number of COVID-19, the UT Administration has also banned opening of bars and serving of liquor to customers in restaurants as the tipplers were not following COVID-19 guidelines, the Chandigarh Administrator said in a tweet,.