HYDERABAD: Frontline Covid-19 warriors are now facing the heat. The virus has started its vengeful attack on them in yet another hospital, this time the prestigious Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) at Punjagutta.
Four resident doctors from the Cardiology Department and three sanitation staff at this medical facility tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday. This apart, the virus also continued to create a scare in Osmania Medical College (OMC) on Wednesday, as four more PG doctors and interns staying at the college hostel tested positive.
They have since been shifted to Gandhi Hospital, taking the total number of junior doctors from Osmania Medical College affected by the virus to 16. The actual number of cases from Osmania Medical College is expected to rise further. Representatives from the Telangana Junior Doctors’ Association pegged the number of positive cases from Osmania Medical College to be at 25 by Wednesday evening, but officials have not confirm the figure.
Junior docs meet Eatala over spread of virus
Perturbed by the developments, Junior Doctors’ Association and Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) met Health Minister Eatala Rajender and expressed their anxiety over the lightning speed at which the virus is spreading.
“We met the Health Minister and the Director of Medical education and insisted that the protocol of dividing the staff into two rotational shifts of quarantine and duty should be implemented. We have also demanded that PPE kits be given to all doctors even in OPD and elective surgery to avoid exposure to the virus and to allow voluntary testing for doctors on a routine basis,” said Dr Srinivas Gundagani, NIMS RDA.
Meanwhile, officials at OMC and NIMS are taking stringent measures. At OMC, it is learnt that the top officials had a virtual meeting with the Health Minister to chart out the course of action. “We have tested a majority of the residents and nearly 58 have tested negative, while details of around 70 will be available on Thursday,” noted Dr Shashikala, Principal, OMC.
Ceiling fan falls in Covid ward
A ceiling fan came crashing down in one of the Covid-19 wards in Gandhi Hospital on Wednesday. No one was injured. The hospital managed to get all fans and other fixtures checked after the incident
New ICMR data casts doubts over Telangana’s contact tracing efforts
Following the controversy over fewer number of samples being tested in Telangana, data presented in a recently published paper in the Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR) by the ICMR, casts doubts over the contact tracing efforts put in by the State government in the crucial starting period of the pandemic — from January 22 to April.
The study, titled ‘Laboratory surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in India: Performance of testing & descriptive epidemiology of detected Covid-19, January 22 - April 30, 2020’, states that the State tested only 14 contacts per confirmed Covid cases, thus categorizing it under the category of states with ‘less than 50th percentile of contacts tested’ — the only South Indian state under the category
OMC residents tested
OMC Principal Dr Shashikala said “We have tested a majority of the residents and nearly 58 have tested negative, while details of around 70 are awaited.”