HYDERABAD: As many as 18 people with suspected Coronavirus were admitted to the Fever and Gandhi hospitals in the city on Thursday. While 11 of them were admitted to the Gandhi Hospital, seven were taken in by the Fever Hospital. It is learnt that of the admitted patients, 10 are Chinese nationals.
Meanwhile, five more medical employees were brought to Gandhi Hospital’s ICMR lab —which has been testing the samples of patients suspected to have Coronavirus — on Thursday, to tackle the staff crunch.
Of these five medicos, four are lab assistants, and one of them is a medical officer from Osmania General Hospital. This has taken the total number of medical professionals testing the samples to 13.
Speaking to Express, Dr S Rajeshwar Rao, professor of Microbiology at Gandhi Hospital, said, “We will need three more doctors on the team. One more doctor is yet to come from the Directorate of Public Health. This is because the test has four phases. A single phase can be handled by just one doctor along with four lab technicians. Currently we have five doctors. We need a total of eight doctors to be able to have two sets of medicos -- one for the morning shift and one for the night shift.”
Not all China returnees to be screened
Dismissing reports claiming that over 3,000 patients need to be tested for Coronavirus here, Dr G Sriniavas Rao, Director, State Public Health, said, "Only the passengers who have returned from Wuhan, China, are supposed to be tested for Coronavirus. All the other passengers are supposed to be tested only if they have the symptoms."
Dr G Vijay Kumar, the State nodal officer for Coronavirus said, "We have a record of only three people from Wuhan who have been tested negative for nCov. A total of 37 people have been tested and all the results are negative."