The state government is considering suspending biometric attendance on the lines of the Union government’s decision to exempt its employees from marking biometric attendance following the COVID-19 scare, said Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, told DH.
“This would require intergovernmental coordination. We need to look at how the Centre did it. We’re still considering it,” Sudhakar said.
Following the reports of Additional Chief Secretary (Health) conveying to IT companies and corporates to suspend biometric attendance, Dr Ravikumar Surpur, Special Commissioner (Projects), BBMP, said, “It did not figure in the discussions held on Friday with representatives of the Outer Ring Road Companies’ Association (ORRCA). May be the Additional Chief Secretary (Health) conveyed it to IT companies in a separate channel of communication. Only the Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey was present in Friday’s meeting.” ORRCA represents multinational companies and corporates on Outer Ring Road, a major IT hub in the city.
Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary (Health), told DH that he had not told anything to this effect to IT companies and corporates.
Study findings
Meanwhile, the analysis of 22 studies has revealed that human coronaviruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) or endemic human coronavirus (HCoV) can persist on inanimate surfaces like metal, glass or plastic for up to 9 days, but can be efficiently inactivated by surface disinfection procedures,” said a research paper published in Journal of Hospital
Infection.
The paper is titled, “Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents”.