Over 18 officers, including senior officers, at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Chennai’s Nungambakkam tested positive for coronavirus on Friday. Confirming the news to TNM, an official from the state health department said, “Eighteen of them have tested positive for COVID-19. We have now started contact tracing all those who visited the office. The building will be closed and disinfected.”
Adding that the office was not functioning to its full capacity, the official shared that all those who were going to the office during the lockdown will be tracked down and tested. So far over 70 of them have been tested and more results are awaited.
ED, which is part of the centre’s Revenue Department, has one of its zonal offices on Greams Road in Nungambakkam, Chennai.
According to reports, DMK MP S Jegathratchagan was at the Enforcement Directorate earlier this month and was quizzed for more than five hours in relation to a case.
Meanwhile, among the leaders in the state, AIADMK’s Paramakudi MLA, N Sathan Prabhakar has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently under treatment at Government Hospital in Ramanathapuram. According to a report in The Hindu, the lawmaker got a COVID-19 test when he came to know that a party cadre who had traveled with him in his car had tested positive. The MLA also made 25 of his party men undergo COVID-19 testing.
The ruling party’s Sriperumbudur MLA K Palani had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier last month. Just a few days ago, it was confirmed that Higher Education Minister KP Anbalagan’s second test for COVID-19 too returned positive. The minister who at first denied that he has contracted the virus is currently undergoing treatment at MIOT Hospital in Chennai. Following the minister's denial, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami too maintained that his Minister had not contracted the virus.