CHAKWAL: The Chakwal district administration has taken into custody the operation manager of an oilfield after registering a case against him under the newly introduced Punjab Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control Ordinance as he was accused of showing negligence regarding four employees who tested positive for Covid-19.

“Four employees of Rajian Oil Field of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) have contracted the virus but the operation manager showed sheer negligence as he did not bother to inform us,” Chakwal deputy commissioner retired Captain Abdul Sattar Esani told Dawn on Wednesday. The DC added that a case against the operation manager was registered and he was taken into custody.

The First Information Report, a copy of which is available with Dawn, against the operation manager of the oil field, Muhammad Tariq, was registered by Chakwal assistant commissioner Muzaffar Mukhtar at Dohman police station.

According to Dr Khalid Hassan, the district focal person for Covid-19, an employee of the oil field returned from his hometown in Gujranwala after 45-day leave. “The management of the oil field took his samples as he returned from another district and his test result came positive for Covid-19 on May 3,” Dr Hassan told Dawn. He added that after the result of that employee’s test came positive, the management of the oil field took samples of his six other roommates and three of them also tested positive for coronavirus.

“Had the operation manager informed the district administration timely, the spread of the virus would have been controlled,” AC Mukhtar maintained in the FIR.

“We have sealed the oil field and quarantined all the employees, including the infected ones in the premises of the oil field,” the DC said, and added that three infected persons were quarantined in a room of the hospital located in the premises of the oil field. “We have taken samples of all the employees of that unit,” he added.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2020