Swine flu closes Google Hyderabad office for 2 days

Google India closed its centre here for today and tomorrow after one of its employees tested positive for the H1N1 (swine flu) virus strain. The effort was to ensure that other employees do not contract the virus.

In a press release, Google stated that it closed the office for two days as a precautionary measure and for sanitising all the common areas.

There are about 250 employees working in the centre here and 95 of them came to the Chest Hospital here on Tuesday to undergo the test. Of these, seven employees had symptoms of swine flu and were quarantined.

The Google employee was one among seven cases who tested positive yesterday. All the seven contracted the virus from a staffer who flew to Hyderabad from Houston on July 5.

The Google employee, who met the Houston-returned staffer, got admitted at the Chest hospital on July 12 and tested positive on July 13, according to the H1N1 Influenza nodal centre coordinator here, K Subhakar.

Following this, Subhakar asked the Google office to check if the employee (who met the one who came from Houston) came to office. On being told he attended the office, the hospital authorities asked Google to screen his close contacts and send them to Chest Hospital for testing.

Meanwhile, three people including a 35-year-old woman who travelled from Florida on July 12, a 29-year software professional who came from Sydney and a 28-year businessman who went to Thailand tested positive for swine flu on Tuesday to take the total to 34 in Hyderabad. The results of 21 more suspect cases are awaited.