Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi tested negative for coronavirus on Thursday, a day after an employee of the Raj Nivas here was found to be infected with the virus.

A release from Raj Nivas said the Health department has informed that the result of the Covid Test, which the Lt Governor had undergone on Wednesday has come out negative.It also said that the office of Lt Governor would adhere to the protocol of keeping all the staff, who were primary contacts, in home quarantine even though they had tested negative.

Bedi and other staff underwent coronavirus tests after an employee of the Raj Nivas tested positive for the infection.

Meanwhile, Bedi told PTI: "We did not want to leave anything to chance and hence got tested."

After the staff tested positive, Raj Nivas, the office of the Lt Governor was shut for a 48-hour period for sanitization.

A team of doctors and other health professionals from Indira Gandhi Government Medical College hospital here collected the swabs of the Lt Governor and other staff for testing on Wednesday.

The result has since shown that Bedi and others tested negative for COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Operation Samudra Setu, which was launched on the 5th of May this year as part of the national effort to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas during the COVID-19 pandemic has culminated after successfully bringing 3 thousand 9 hundred 92 Indian citizens back to their homeland by sea.

Indian Naval Ships Jalashwa, Airavat, Shardul and Magar participated in this operation which lasted over 55 days and involved traversing more than 23 thousand kilometers by sea.

The greatest challenge for the Indian Navy was to avoid any incident of an outbreak of infection on board the ships during the evacuation operation.

Rigorous measures were planned and medical and safety protocols unique to the operating environment of ships were implemented. These were strictly followed while undertaking Operation Samudra Setu resulting in the safe return of citizens to their homeland. 

Source; PTI