9 CMCH patients turn positive, 52 staff kept in quarantine

COIMBATORE: Nine people, including two new mothers and as many pregnant women, tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Saturday, a day after they were admitted to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH). While three of them are imported cases, the remaining are indigenous ones. All of them have been shifted to the ESI Hospital.
In addition, two women from the district and seven flyers from New Delhi also tested positive for the virus on Saturday. Samples were collected from the flyers when they landed in the city on Friday. The two women are primary contacts of the 25-year-old pregnant woman from Kovaipudur who tested positive for the virus earlier in the week.
CMCH has asked 52 of its staff, including a few doctors, staff nurses and ward boys, to remain in home quarantine for a week and watch out for symptoms. Earlier in the week, the government hospital had sent 40 staff members in quarantine, after a throat cancer patient tested positive for the virus. “All the 40 have tested negative for the virus. The new batch of 52 will be tested for Covid-19 after four days,” said a senior epidemiologist in the city.
Among the new cases are a breast cancer patient and an HIV cum tuberculosis patient. Another two had come to the hospital for gastroenterology surgery. Officials said they had begun contact tracing of indigenous cases.
CMCH dean Dr P Kalidoss confirmed that nine people, who were admitted to the hospital, have tested positive for the virus. “One of them is from Virudhunagar, two from Tirupur and the remaining are from the district. We had created isolation rooms within every department, where they were kept on arrival. They were kept in isolation until the results were out to ensure that the entire ward and departments do not get contaminated.” He said they have disinfected the isolation rooms and other facilities that were used by doctors and nurses, who were in contact with the nine.
Speaking about the infected women from the labour ward, he said a 19-year-old from Virudhunagar had delivered a low birth weight baby, while the baby of a 32-year-old woman from Tirupur had died during delivery as she suffered from bladder exstrophy. One of the pregnant women, who is from Tirupur, had heart disease. The remaining one is 23 years old.
Public health department officials, meanwhile, said they have sent teams to Sulur, Rathinapuri, Thekkalur and other locations to screen family members and neighbours of the new indigenous Covid-19 patients.
A health official said they had sent Covid-19 results of two women from Narasimanaickenpalayam and Periyanaickenpalayam for reinvestigation. They were, however, admitted to the ESI Hospital on Saturday. None of them have travel history, the official said.