With more members of the medical staff in the Kannur Medical College Hospital (KMCH) testing positive for the SARS-COV-2, the management is on high alert and has started taking preventive measures.
The hospital authorities said that the spread of the virus had not affected the medical staff in COVID-19 wards. Most of the cases that were reported in the past few days had emerged from those who were on duty in non-COVID-19 wards.
This indicated that the spread of the virus was taking place from asymptomatic patients. This accidental detention of the disease pointed to the possibility of social spread, K. Sudeep, Superintendent of KMCH told The Hindu.
Twenty members of the medical staff, including eight on Friday, have been confirmed positive for COVID-19. They include doctors, nurses, and technical staff. Besides, 60 members of the staff have gone on quarantine as a precaution.
Dr. Sudeep said that following the detection of positive cases among the medical staff, the management had decided to carry out a rapid antigen test for all medical employees, patients arriving at the casualty, in ICU and in the wards. The recent tests conducted helped to detect patients admitted to the ICU and wards with the virus, he observed.
“We have also requested the district administration to take steps in reducing unnecessary referral to the hospital here and to ensure that the patients are treated at the local health centres,” he said. In such times, it was important that the health workers be fully protected, he said. It has also been decided to provide N-95 mask to all the health workers and wearing gowns, googles facial masks and using hand sanitizers compulsory.
18 more cases
In Kannur, 18 more persons tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday.
They include three persons from abroad, four from other States, and one person who contracted the disease through local contact, while 10 others are health workers.