HYDERABAD: The rise in cases of doctors testing positive for Covid-19 has forced the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) to shut down five departments for two days from June 7 to 9 in order to disinfect the buildings where the infected doctors had worked.
“The inpatients of the concerned block have been shifted to other parts of the hospital. All maintenance and sanitisation work will be undertaken during these two days,” said NIMS superintendent Dr N Satyanarayana.
The decision was taken by the hospital authorities after as many as 26 doctors tested positive for Covid-19 in the NIMS over the last three days. Seven cases reported on Friday night alone. This has sent the administration into a tizzy, forcing them to take up immediate sanitisation efforts on the hospital premises.
All the departments to be closed are located in the speciality block of the hospital.
They are Medicinal Gastroenterology, Surgical Gastroenterology, Urology, Cardiology and Surgical Oncology departments. Express had previously reported that both the Cardiology and Gastroenterology departments would be shut down, after doctors here tested positive.
Meanwhile, four junior doctors from the Cardiology and Medicine department and two interns at the Osmania General Hospital are latest in the list of frontline medical workers to be infected by Covid-19.
The exact source of the infection remains unknown as the students and junior doctors were serving a multitude of roles over the last month. Gandhi Hospital also reported four new cases of medical workers testing positive. The total number of people from the medical fraternity, including doctors and nurses, who have tested positive for Covid-19 in the government hospitals of Telangana has touched 57 as on Saturday.