MUMBAI: The Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai Central seems to have emerged as the city’s biggest hotspot with the count of positive cases from the facility touching 52 on Monday. Civic officials confirmed that apart from nurses, staffers and three doctors are among those who have tested positive. This single hospital in the city now has more cases than all but one of the 24 civic wards. G South, which includes the densely populated Worli Koliwada that saw an outbreak last week, is the only one with more cases — 68.
Police have barricaded the entrance to the hospital, which has shut its gates and services. Civic officials confirmed that plans were being drawn up to shift the affected staffers to various dedicated Covid-19 hospitals so that this facility could start functioning. The hospital was declared a containment zone after nurses started coming positive. Sources said around 50-60 patients continue to be in the hospital, but most have tested negative for coronavirus. Besides the medical personnel, samples of patients too have been sent for testing. In all, 270 swabs were collected from the hospital.
“Most of the positive staffers, which includes nearly 30 nurses, didn’t have any major symptoms,” said BMC’s deputy executive health officer Dr Daksha Shah. She said the source of the infection was a heart patient who didn’t have Covid-19 symptoms. By the time he had come positive, which was almost after four-five days into treatment at the hospital, many staffers were exposed to the virus.
Nurses have alleged that the hospital’s inappropriate handling of the situation was mainly responsible for the spread. Families of several nurses have even reached out to the Kerala CM, requesting him to intervene in the matter. On Monday, Kerala’s leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala called Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope seeking his intervention. “As many as 40 nurses from Kerala working at a private hospital in Mumbai have contracted the disease. More than 150 nurses in the hospital are kept under observation.
There are more than 200 nurses from Kerala working in this hospital. The health workers becoming prey to the fatal virus en masse is a grave situation,” he said, adding that the lives of the nurses have to be saved at any cost. Hospital sources, however, told TOI most nurses are asymptomatic, while the others are recovering. Hospital officials said 50 nurses had been shifted to SevenHills, Marol, on Monday evening. The hospital in a statement said the source of infection was identified as a 70-year-old patient admitted on March 17 for a cardiac emergency. “The patient was asymptomatic. On March 26, the patient developed cough, and was tested for Covid-19, which turned out positive. The hospital staff were unknowingly exposed to the infection in the time period. We are informing the healthcare sector at large not to be misled by asymptomatic patients.”
Police have barricaded the entrance to the hospital, which has shut its gates and services. Civic officials confirmed that plans were being drawn up to shift the affected staffers to various dedicated Covid-19 hospitals so that this facility could start functioning. The hospital was declared a containment zone after nurses started coming positive. Sources said around 50-60 patients continue to be in the hospital, but most have tested negative for coronavirus. Besides the medical personnel, samples of patients too have been sent for testing. In all, 270 swabs were collected from the hospital.
“Most of the positive staffers, which includes nearly 30 nurses, didn’t have any major symptoms,” said BMC’s deputy executive health officer Dr Daksha Shah. She said the source of the infection was a heart patient who didn’t have Covid-19 symptoms. By the time he had come positive, which was almost after four-five days into treatment at the hospital, many staffers were exposed to the virus.
Nurses have alleged that the hospital’s inappropriate handling of the situation was mainly responsible for the spread. Families of several nurses have even reached out to the Kerala CM, requesting him to intervene in the matter. On Monday, Kerala’s leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala called Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope seeking his intervention. “As many as 40 nurses from Kerala working at a private hospital in Mumbai have contracted the disease. More than 150 nurses in the hospital are kept under observation.
There are more than 200 nurses from Kerala working in this hospital. The health workers becoming prey to the fatal virus en masse is a grave situation,” he said, adding that the lives of the nurses have to be saved at any cost. Hospital sources, however, told TOI most nurses are asymptomatic, while the others are recovering. Hospital officials said 50 nurses had been shifted to SevenHills, Marol, on Monday evening. The hospital in a statement said the source of infection was identified as a 70-year-old patient admitted on March 17 for a cardiac emergency. “The patient was asymptomatic. On March 26, the patient developed cough, and was tested for Covid-19, which turned out positive. The hospital staff were unknowingly exposed to the infection in the time period. We are informing the healthcare sector at large not to be misled by asymptomatic patients.”
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