BHUBANESWAR: AS Bhubaneswar registered its highest single-day spike in 19 Covid-19 cases on Saturday, the blood bank of Capital hospital and another private hospital were sealed after some of their employees tested positive in the last 24 hours. The 19 new cases include nine frontline workers from three hospitals, taking the city’s tally to 184. All the cases reported from hospitals were local cases.
Officials of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) said a total 15 local and four home quarantine cases were reported in the city in the last 24 hours. Blood bank of Capital hospital was sealed for 24 hours and disinfected after a lab technician tested positive. Director of the hospital Ashok Kumar Pattnaik said after four hours of disinfection, access to the blood bank was made for emergency cases. “Around 10 staff who had come in direct contact with the lab technician were put under home quarantine and will be tested,” Pattnaik said, adding that the hospital has now outsourced two lab technicians to operationalise the blood bank.
The Blue Wheel Hospital at Mancheswar was also sealed temporarily for sanitisation after six of its employees tested positive for the virus. The six cases include three women in the age group of 21 to 27 years and three men in the age group of 21 to 33 years. The employees had come in contact with a person of another district who had tested positive earlier.
Two employees of Care Hospital, a 45-year-old woman and a 27-year-old man, who were linked to an earlier positive case, were also found infected. Apart from all the frontline workers, five persons including three youths in the age group of 15 to 19, tested positive at Subash Nagar slum of Dumduma. The cases were reported just three days after one person from the locality having a travel history to Delhi tested positive.
A nine-year-old boy of Laxmi Bazar slum, who had travelled to Bhubaneswar on June 11 from another district, was also found infected. On the other hand, four more railway employees who were in home quarantine after their return from Delhi, tested positive for coronavirus taking the number of railway staff infected so far to 15.
Further contact tracing is in progress. Primary contacts and neighbours have been quarantined and will be under surveillance for a week or two, said an official from the civic body. The previous highest 24-hour spike of 18 cases had been reported in the city two-and-a-half months back on April 5.