Express News Service BENGALURU: A day after it was revealed that a 24-year-old Hyderabad-based techie who has been diagnosed with Covid-19, was working in Bengaluru and had spent a few days in the city after he arrived from Dubai, there was a palpable sense of anxiety. Messages and photos went viral on social media platforms even as the Health Department machinery got into action. Residents of Jain Altura apartment complex in Kaikondanahalli, Varthur, where the techie had stayed, were in panic after a team of around 30 health officials visited the apartment complex to test all residents. The techie’s house and office premises have since been fumigated. The bus in which he travelled to Hyderabad was also disinfected. Meanwhile, he is responding to symptomatic treatment and his condition is stable. As a precautionary measure, the Department of Public Instruction has advised Deputy Directors of Public Instruction and Block Education Officers to communicate to schools that children, staff and teachers who have fever, cold, cough or upper respiratory infection should not attend school. Health and Family Welfare Minister B Sriramulu and Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar on Tuesday held a meeting with Principal Secretary Jawaid Akhtar, Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey, and other officials. Briefing the media after the meeting, Sriramulu appealed to people not to panic and stressed that all precautionary measures were being taken. NIMHANS ready to conduct nCoV tests The National Centre for Disease Control has asked the Dept of Neurovirology at NIMHANS if it is ready to be designated as a testing laboratory for COVID-19. The hospital said it is prepared. Work from home, tech firms advise employees The company where the COVID-19-affected techie works, has reportedly asked its employees to work from home for the next 14 days. Other firms in Bengaluru have also issued similar advice. Demand for masks rises People are now rushing to buy surgical and N95 masks and hand sanitisers. Manufacturers and distributors say they are running out of stocks while prices of surgical masks have gone up from 80 paise per piece just two months ago, to `25 in the wholesale market now.

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