ONGC staffer in CMD office dies from Covid-19

Vol 23, PW 18 (16 Jul 20) People & Policy

ONGC employees at its corporate HQ on Nelson Mandela Road in Delhi are feeling shaken after a 48-year old executive assistant in chairman Shashi Shanker's support group died of Covid-19.

Sources say the officer, a general manager from a core ONGC discipline, would have celebrated his 49th birthday this month (July). From July 1 he was to begin an important assignment at ONGC Videsh.

Soon after his death on June 28, ONGC's corporate HQ went on high alert and employees who worked there or who had visited chairman Shanker's office rushed to get tested for the virus. Many senior officers, among them Shanker and the full-time directors, stopped going into the office, preferring to work from home for a few days until their offices were thoroughly disinfected.

They have since started going back into the office again, we hear. Thankfully, says a source, since early June when the government began easing Covid-19 lockdown restrictions only 30% of ONGC's total corporate HQ staff report for work daily in line with current official health protocols.

Still unclear is how the officer, a resident of ONGC's staff colony in Noida, became infected with Coronavirus. Shocked at his sudden and untimely death, his colleagues say that most likely this officer had been infected with Coronavirus for quite a while but ignored the symptoms, which eventually became worse, leading to emergency hospitalisation and death two days later.

ONGC worked hard to trace everybody who had any contact with the deceased officer, not just among staff but also among contractors and vendors who had visited the office building. “Everybody was asked to take precautions,” we hear. At first, the stigma around the virus meant that the officer’s neighbours were unwilling to visit his family to offer their condolences. But this changed after director human resources (Ms) Alka Mittal set an example and visited the family. The deceased officer’s wife tested negative for the virus. But his two young daughters tested positive and are receiving treatment at Apollo Hospital in Noida, which is on ONGC’s approved list of hospitals. In a separate development, two medical officers within ONGC’s corporate medical division in Delhi tested positive for Coronavirus one after the other. Fortunately, say sources, they quarantined themselves as soon as their test reports arrived and are now fully recovered. “They worked together,” says a source. First, the senior doctor became infected and quarantined himself. Then the junior doctor tested positive and also isolated himself.

ONGC staffer in CMD office dies from Covid-19

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