72 families home-quarantined in South Delhi after pizza delivery boy tests COVID-19 positive

New Delhi: People living in around 72 houses in South Delhi have been asked to stay in home quarantine after a pizza delivery boy, who had delivered food to their homes, tested positive for coronavirus, authorities said on Thursday.

The pizza delivery boy is employed with the famous pizza chain in Malviya Nagar 'Mojo Pizza', which delivers a combo of pizza and box meals and groceries on-demand. Confirming the development, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain said that 17 other delivery boys linked with the infected man have also been placed under institutional quarantine.

"A pizza delivery boy has been detected with COVID-19 here. 17 other delivery boys linked with him have been placed under institutional quarantine and 72 people have been placed under home quarantine," Jain said.

Sharing more information, South Delhi District Magistrate BM Mishra said after the delivery boy tested positive, the authorities immediately decided to quarantine his colleagues at the outlet. A detailed trail was followed to identify each house where food was delivered by the outlet.

"We have found that 72 houses had taken delivery from that outlet and hence everyone has been told to follow precautionary measures and be under self- quarantine," Mishra said.

He added that there was no need to panic, as he had informed all the delivery boys to use masks and follow the safety measures while executing a delivery. But the decision to send all contact persons to quarantine was ‘necessary'  as a precautionary measure.

The said delivery boy is now undergoing treatment at a hospital, while others who came in his contact are being monitored on a daily basis.

Mojo Pizza also issued a statement in which it regretted the incident and said that it has suspended its operation for the time being.

The pizza delivery boy in question had also visited the Mother Dairy outlay in that area, which is also being sanitised.

Some of the orders from this outlet were also made through food delivery giant Zomato, which said that while all colleagues of the delivery boy have tested negative, as a precautionary measure, the restaurant has now suspended operations for the time being.

"All the co-workers of the said rider have tested negative and as a precaution, the restaurant where the rider worked has suspended operations," Zomato said in a statement.