Udaipur hotel staff at risk as nurse tests +ve for Covid-19

UDAIPUR: The RTDC staff working at the Kajri Hotel is at high risk of getting infected as a male nurse, who had been staying in one of its rooms, was found positive on Sunday morning. More than 30 hours after the report came, neither the district administration nor the medical department collected their samples or conducted any screening.
The worrying aspect is that the hotel staff has no accommodation on the premises and all employees live in rented accommodations in and around the city. The staff has been reporting for work and returning home without being tested for Covid-19.
When approached for a comment, incharge for quarantine facilities Dr Rahul Jain said, “The medical staff housed in two separate quarantine facilities, hotels Kajri and Alka, are being shifted to other places. A cook from Alka hotel was found positive on Monday. Hence, we are taking samples of the staff at both these hotels. Some have been taken while the remaining would be taken soon.” The medical staff, however, was at the hotel till Monday evening. Manager of Kajri Hotel Sunil Mathur declined to give details about the occupants and said that he was out on tour to Dungarpur.
Hotel Kajri is situated on Shastri Circle and was acquired by the district administration as an institutional quarantine facility for the medical staff of MB Government Hospital. Of the 63 rooms here, 55 were acquired on March 29. For the past 50 days, around 15 hotel staff and three casual workers have been attending the guests here. They have been cleaning the rooms and common area, changing linen frequently and extending hospitality.
Three others from the medical staff staying at the hotels had tested positive in the past. On Sunday, a 30-year-old male nurse was found positive who was then admitted to the corona ward. Had it been in some residential colony, the entire area would have been sealed and close contacts of the positive case would have been quarantined too, but surprisingly, the Kajri staff continued to work like ordinary times. Even curfew was not imposed in the area. “The only protocol followed was that the room, which was occupied by the positive nurse on Sunday, was sanitised and locked, while around 38 people continue to occupy other rooms. Also, most of the hotel staff are above 50 years who are given no weekly offs and even their salaries are not being paid regularly,” a source said.
Dr Ashok Aditya, incharge of the containment zone, said the guidelines were different for quarantine facilities and for public places.