Around 280 junior doctors staying in Osmania Medical College hostels at Koti are waiting for their turn to get tested for COVID-19 after seven post-graduate (PG) students were detected to have contracted the virus by Monday afternoon. Results of two of the seven students were received late on Sunday night.
The first case from the college was detected on Saturday. A gynecology PG student who attended duty at Modern Government Maternity Hospital, Petlaburj, tested positive. Thereafter, six more were detected with the infectious disease. At least two of them stayed at the hostel. An alumnus, who also tested positive, had been staying on the college campus.
Senior Health officials and the college administration have been keeping a close watch on the situation. Members of Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA) demanded tests to be conducted on all the doctors who are attending duties. “We have decided to test 280 house surgeons and PG students — 100 males and 180 females — who stay in the hostel. The process of collecting swab samples has started. Results will be known in a day or two,” officials said.
On Monday, the junior doctors were seen standing in serpentine queues at the hostel to give their swab samples. If one tests positive, they will be isolated at home or at the hospital depending on severity of the disease. If results are negative, they will be quarantined at the hostel itself.
As of now, the hostel is not declared a containment zone. Junior doctors walk in and out of the hostel to attend duties. Mess facility at the hostels, however, is closed. Junior doctors either cook or buy food parcels from canteen. “A decision regarding closure of the hostel will be taken based on the test results,” officials said. If several of them are detected with COVID-19, it would mean less number of doctors at government hospitals.
TJUDA members continued to demand reintroduction of process of quarantining doctors after attending duties for five to 10 days, which was followed during lockdown. They have also urged officials to provide separate accommodation as the junior doctors fear spreading the infection to their family members at home.
Meanwhile, junior doctors at other hospitals who attend COVID-19 patients said that a few among them might also test positive if tests are conducted on them.