HCL Tech Noida Employee Tests Positive For Covid-19 On Return To India

An employee of India's third largest IT services firm HCL Technologies has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, the company confirmed on Thursday.

"Unfortunately, one employee from our Noida office has been tested positive for the novel coronavirus while he was in self-isolation after his return from international travel and hence our office is following all government and heath advisory protocols. All prescribed protocols of sanitisation and contact tracing have been done. The employee is currently in an isolation ward and all measures are being taken to provide best medical care to him and support to his family," a spokesperson of HCL Technologies said in a statement.

Indian technology services firms have operations in several parts of the world and travel for employees is often a necessity. HCL Technologies did not say which country the employee had travelled from.

Wherever possible, all technology services firms have let their employees work from home.

The situation is slightly tricky for these firms because some client projects serviced out of India are highly sensitive and work on strict secrecy. Entire floors or designated spaces are often allocated for such projects and employees have restricted movement and use of communications.

While firms are renegotiating these terms with clients, there are also those who may have travelled before the coronavirus spread to different countries.

"All other employees are in good health and are being monitored continuously. We have invoked our COVID-19 Contingency Plan in all geographies which aims at maximizing Work from Home to aid social distancing and also issued a Travel Advisory across the company, taking full precautionary measures and suspending all non-essential travel until further notice. Our recently launched global helpline for Covid-19 provides 24X7 support to our employees," HCL added.