MADURAI: A new COVID-19 cluster has emerged in Madurai, worryingly, from the Government Rajaji Hospital, the key Covid treatment facility in the region. Sources have confirmed that at least 29 doctors and nurses, posted on Covid duty at the hospital, have tested positive for the virus since Friday.
At least 16 of the affected are nurses while the others are doctors, including postgraduates and assistant professors from departments such as plastic surgery and ophthalmology. Most of the affected frontline workers were posted on Covid triage duty at the Trauma Care Centre (TCC) Block of GRH, hospital sources said.
The emergence of this cluster is cause for concern as in the past five months only six or seven doctors and nurses on Covid duty had tested positive at a time, an official said. However, Madurai has seen a huge rise in its caseload since mid-June and currently has 1,952 active cases. While the hospital's dean was unavailable for comment, officials said Covid treatment would not be affected at the hospital as most of the medical professionals infected had either completed their rotation or were half-way through.
Meanwhile, the hospital administration has been requested to improve the condition of the donning and doffing rooms and to restrict the number of attendants visiting Covid patients admitted in the block.