A North civic body worker sanitises Hindu Rao Hospital. (File Photo: Abhinav Saha)
Six healthcare workers, including a doctor and a nursing staff, have tested positive for Covid-19 at Hindu Rao Hospital after coming in contact with a kidney patient who came in for dialysis.
This takes the total number of healthcare workers who tested positive for the virus at the hospital to 16. The patient, who was admitted at the North Corporation-run hospital for a kidney-related ailment, ended up coming in contact with 70 people in the hospital, said a doctor.
A North DMC spokesperson said of the 70 contacts, 69 were tested and 64 reports received out of which six tested positive and the rest negative.
A senior official of the North DMC said sanitation and contact tracing is underway. As many as 43 healthcare workers of the North corporation have so far tested positive.
Earlier, a nurse who tested positive had come into contact contact with over 50 medical staff leading to the hospital being shut down for sanitisation.
A doctor in the hospital, who did not wished to be named, claimed PPE kits are given mostly in the fever screening and isolation ward, which leaves healthcare workers in other wards like emergency, general wards, casualty, vulnerable.
He claimed, “In this case, the kidney patient was transferred to the fever clinic and from there to three other wards before being sent to the ICU and finally the isolation ward. Several doctors and staff have been asked to isolate themselves, as a result.”
The 18-year-old patient was admitted to Hindu Rao on May 7 for a kidney ailment. The patient developed symptoms of Covid later.
An official from the corporation said there is no shortage of PPEs at its hospitals: “All protective gear is used strictly as per health ministry guidelines. Also, all our hospitals are very close to containment zones, making them vulnerable.”
The 950-bed hospital, the biggest under the North MCD, employs over 1,200 medical staff, including 400 nurses and 400 doctors. An isolation ward with 14 beds has been set up for Covid-19 cases but patients are yet to be sent here.
Mayor Avtar Singh also said the hospital has enough stock of PPEs and there is no shortage.