Google shuts an office in India for 2 days after a worker tests positive for swine flu

Google shuts office in India over swine flu fears

HYDERABAD, India — Internet search leader Google Inc. shut one of its offices in southern India for two days after an employee tested positive for swine flu, a company statement said Wednesday.

The office in Hyderabad with 250 workers was closed on Tuesday and Wednesday while it was being sanitized, the statement said. However, the main office in the city, a key software hub in the country, was functioning normally.

“One of our contractual workers in Hyderabad has been diagnosed with the virus. He has been hospitalized and is under full medical care,” the statement said.

“As a precautionary measure we have closed the concerned office for two days,” it said.

K. Subhakar, the coordinator of state-run Swine Flu Nodal Center, said the Google worker also infected six other people, most of them sharing accommodation with him. No details of the six people were immediately available.

All seven patients have been quarantined in the Government Chest Hospital for treatment, he said.

Subhakar said 95 workers at the facility have been screened for the virus and four of them have been asked to stay in hospital as their samples were being tested.

He also said the Google employee had recently returned from the United States but did not show any symptoms when he was screened at the airport.

In India, 220 people have so far tested positive for swine flu, according to the Health Ministry. Of them, 141 have been sent home after treatment.

No deaths have been reported so far in India.

Associated Press writer Ashok Sharma contributed to this report.