BackGoogle shuts Hyderabad office on swine flu fears
Google shuts Hyderabad office on swine flu fears
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Hyderabad: Google Inc. on Tuesday became the second multinational firm to shut its India office temporarily in recent weeks over fears about the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, spreading among its employees.
The Internet search firm said in a statement it decided to shut its office in Hyderabad temporarily after one of its contractual employees was diagnosed with the H1N1 virus.
“As a precautionary measure, we have closed the concerned office in Hyderabad for two days, 14th and 15th July, and are taking all necessary steps, including sanitizing of common areas, to protect our employees," Google said.
A senior official at Chest Hospital in Hyderabad, the nodal agency handling H1N1 virus-affected cases in Andhra Pradesh, said seven software professionals were diagnosed with the virus on Sunday and three more on Monday evening.
The official, who declined to be named, refused to disclose the identity of the firm the software professionals belonged to.
He said nine teams of medical professionals were tracking the friends and relatives the software employees interacted with, to offer them immediate care and stop the virus from spreading.
“According to the information we have, with the latest virus-affected cases, the total number of persons affected by the virus in Andhra Pradesh reached 35 and the total across the country to 216," the Chest Hospital official said.
Earlier in July, Samsung India Electronics Ltd shut its software operation centre in Bangalore temporarily to disinfect the premises after one of its employees tested positive for the H1N1 virus.
c.sukumar@livemint.com
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