After Google, Wipro on flu alert

The swine flu bug has bit the IT sector. After Google closed its office for two days to get its premises sanitised, Wipro decided to get its swine flu act in place.

The firm has directed its employees returning from overseas assignments to report to work 48 hours after their arrival. These two days will be paid leaves for them. Given that of the 34 confirmed cases of swine flu so far, most have been techies, the city’s IT firms have stepped up their swine flu alert and awareness mechanism.

The two IT firms that have had a case each of infection in their office have had the entire staff quarantined and the suspect cases tested for the infection. Most IT majors are sending out mailers daily asking their jet-setting techies to take precautions.

At Microsoft, the internal website has been uploaded with the information on swine flu along with travel guidelines. Similarly, the management of Mahindra Satyam has forwarded power point presentations to the work force giving a lowdown on how to protect themselves and the same has been uploaded on the company’s portal as well.

“For anyone who is going on overseas assignments, they should report to office only after completion of 48 hours. The employees who returned from Sweden, were asked to do the same since the flu symptoms develop within 48 hours,” a senior staffer of Wipro said.

Elaborating the status of a company wherein one of the employee contracted the virus and is a part of the cluster, District Medical & Health Officer (DM&HO) Hyderabad Dr Ch Jayakumari, who along with her team conducted an awareness session on Wednesday said, “This company has a work force of 180. While one has tested positive, reports of another five have been sent for confirmatory tests while 56 have been given profilaxis treatment. Rest have been home quarantined.”