Rishikesh hotel closed for 48 hours after 16 employees test Covid positive

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.

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.