Ahead of the Budget Session of the Parliament, more than 400 Parliament staff members were tested positive for COVID-19, according to official sources.
The officials told ANI that 402 staff members were tested positive out of the 1,409 staff of Parliament for the virus from January 4 to 8 after which their samples were sent for genome sequencing to confirm the variant.
“Close to 402 staffs were tested positive for COVID-19 from January 4-8 and all samples have been sent to genome sequencing for Omicron variant confirmation,” an official told ANI.
Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat has restricted staff attendance in view of the rising COVID-19 cases and has directed half of the officials and staff below the rank of secretary/executive officer to work from home till the end of this month.
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Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has reviewed the situation and directed that necessary measures be taken to contain the spread of the virus among the Secretariat officials and staff ahead of the Budget session which is to begin towards the end of this month, reported ANI.
In the next three weeks or so, the budget session of parliament will be underway and the union budget is likely to be presented on February 1.
India saw a single-day spike of 1,59,632 new COVID-19 cases, raising the tally to 3.55 crore, including 3,623 cases of Omicron variant across 27 states and union territories. India’s active caseload currently stands at 5,90,611. The active cases comprise 1.66 per cent of the total infections, while the recovery rate has come down to 96.98 per cent.
(With inputs from ANI)
