Srinagar: Dozens of corporators and employees of Srinagar Municipal Corporation were sent to home quarantine on Saturday after the brother of a corporator from downtown area tested positive for novel coronavirus, officials said.
The new patient, a resident of Narwara in downtown Srinagar, is brother of the SMC corporator from Seki Dafar.
“Soon after he tested positive we sent his family members and some SMC corporators and employees to quarantine as a precautionary measure,” said a senior health official.
“He recently managed to return home from outside despite lockdown,” the official added.
According to officials, the family tried to conceal the travel history but neighbours informed the administration on April 28.
“He was immediately sent to a quarantine centre. Now we are tracing his other contacts so that they are alao tested for the virus,” the official said.
The SMC administration has been left in a tizzy after the news spread that the corporator was living with his brother who has been found to be Covid-19 positive.
The Seki Dafar corporator had recently met top officials of SMC including Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu, Deputy Mayor Parvez Qadri, District President BJP for Srinagar Arif Raja, Corporator from Nishat, Aqib Renzu, Private Secretary to Mayor Sheikh Firdous and other employees.
According to sources, the corporator was also part of the sanitation drives carried across Srinagar city by the municipal corporation.
District Development Commissioner Srinagar Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary in a tweet asked people to be truthful. He wrote that citizens should be alert, responsive and truthful.
Without naming the infected person or his corporator brother, the DDC Srinagar wrote that a person was flagged by neighbours who had arrived clandestinely amid the lockdown. “Let us not rush, rather, follow protocols,” he tweeted and declared Narwara Eidgah area as Red Zone.

Manzoor ul-Hassan