Karnataka: Govt cuts sick leaves of employees

Bengaluru: The State government has decided to cut sick leaves of Covid-hit government employees as there is serious manpower shortage at a time when Omicron cases are on the rise. It's contemplating reducing Coronavirus recovery days from three to seven days as one in three government employees are reporting sick. In some cases, employees are using the infection as an excuse to take leave or seek permission to work from home.

To deal with this, the government departments are asking employees to report for work within seven days of quarantine. The worst situation is in health sector where several doctors, nursing and paramedical staff are falling victim to the virus leaving patient care in a disarray. Against this backdrop, the health department has issued a circular requiring hospital employees who are primary contacts of Covid-hit coworkers to return to work within three days if they show no symptoms of the infection.