Dharmendra-Owned Dhaba Among Two Super Spreader Eateries In Haryana’s Murthal

New Delhi: A popular highway dhaba owned by Bollywood actor Dharmendra and another restaurant in Haryana’s Murthal have been sealed after 75 employees were found infected with coronavirus, an official said on Friday.

At least 10,000 people visited the two highway eateries — Amrik Sukhdev Dhaba and Garam Dharam Dhaba (owned by Dharmendra) — and a massive contact-tracing is going on to identify possible infected people, Sonepat District Commissioner Shyam Lal Poonia informed.

“We collected samples of 360 employees of Amrik Sukhdev Dhaba on Wednesday. Of them, 65 were found positive. Another 10 employees of Garam Dharam Dhaba have tested positive for COVID-19,” NDTV quoted Poonia as saying.

He said it’s a big challenge to trace all the customers who visited the super-spreader dhabas in the last one week.

Poonia said the Sonepat district administration has been running a screening drive to test workers at dhabas and it was during this process that these cases were detected.

The restaurants along the highway in Murthal, some 70 km from Delhi, are frequented by thousands of people travelling between the national capital and Chandigarh and are known for their paranthas. It is also a popular place for weekend brunch and late-night outing for people living in nearby districts.

Haryana on Thursday reported its highest single-day spike of 1,881 coronavirus cases with 19 fatalities. Sonepat district reported 190 coronavirus cases, NDTV reported.