NEW DELHI: The Out-Patient Department at Delhi State Cancer Institute has been shut and patients are being temporarily shifted to a private hospital after several DSCI staffers tested positive for COVID-19, a senior official said on Tuesday. Two doctors and 16 paramedics tested positive for coronavirus at the institute.The official said authorities are investigating how the staffers contracted the infection as the cancer institute was not admitting COVID-19 patients.
“We have closed the OPD facility as of now, and though the IPD facility is running, patients are slowly being shifted to a nearby facility, so that the entire premises can be sanitized,” he said. The process should take two days and patients would be brought back after that, he added. On Monday, another official said 24 healthcare personnel of the hospital have been asked to remain in-home quarantine.
AIIMS to provide masks to all healthcare workers
Taking measures to safeguard its workers against coronavirus, the AIIMS administration has decided to provide N95 masks to all its healthcare workers involved in direct patient care and has asked them to reuse the masks at least four times after disinfecting them. The masks, it said, will suffice for 20 days after being disinfected.According to a circular issued, each healthcare worker including doctors, nurses, technical staff and security guards would be provided five N95 masks each.
“The ANS I/C of various patient care areas shall ensure the availability of red bins for segregation of used N95 masks in their respective areas... It is imperative that in accordance with evidence’ based scientific literature, these N95 masks are to be disinfected by individual users (by keeping them in open after use or by other methods) and re-used atleast four times each, whereby these will suffice for about 20 days,” the circular said.
The Resident Doctor’s Association (RDA) of AIIMS earlier had written to the AIIMS administration raising the issue of inadequate PPEs in the hospital.Meanwhile, to ease the burden of acquiring protective masks, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi donated 15,000 N95 masks to AIIMS. “I have ordered supply of 15,000 N95 masks to AIIMS for 25 lakh for protective use by doctors and the support staff today. Supply would be made in four to five days to AIIMS,” Dwivedi said on Tuesday. The step has been taken in consultation with AIIMS.
With agency inputs