ONGOLE: With a spike in Covid cases in the city, the Ongole Municipal Corporation (OMC) office was closed for the public for a few days from Tuesday. OMC Commissioner P Niranjan Reddy took a decision after the abnormal spike in corona cases in and around the OMC limits.
Recently, four OMC staff tested positive for Covid-19. After this, the entire office premises was sanitised with sodium hypochlorite and bleaching powder.
On Monday, all the OMC officials and staff, including Commissioner Niranjan Reddy, Municipal Engineer Sundararami Reddy, and all other regular and outsourcing staff were tested for Covid-19. On an average, around 500 people visit the OMC office daily.
“We have decided to close the office gates for the public for a few days to check the virus spread. However, staff will attend duties as usual and daily work will not be hampered. In this regard, instead of meeting the concerned staff in the OMC directly, we request the public to drop their grievances/ applications on various issues in the drop box arranged at the main gate. Our staff will clear that box every one hour and the officials concerned will address the problems at the earliest,” the OMC Commissioner said.
Meanwhile, 786 municipal sanitation workers, including 105 regular and 681 contract/workers requested the authorities to conduct Covid-19 test for them. One of the sanitation supervisors had tested positive recently. Responding to the request, the OMC authorities said that they would soon organise a special drive to conduct tests for the OMC sanitation workers.