COVID-19 cases among frontline healthcare professionals in Telangana continues to rise as seven more doctors from various government hospitals tested positive on Thursday. They include five doctors from Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) and two from Gandhi Hospital.
At NIMS, four more resident doctors and one professor from cardiology department were detected with COVID-19. Four resident doctors and three staff members from the same department were detected with the disease on Wednesday, taking the total number of infected to 12.
NIMS Resident Doctors Association (RDA) president Dr G Srinivas said that those who tested positive are undergoing treatment in the institute. The cluster might increase as more doctors from the cardiology department are feared to have contracted the infectious disease. The source is not known yet. Besides, a patient undergoing treatment in the nephrology department too tested positive. Doctors who attended the patient are on alert.
NIMS medical superintendent Dr N Satyanarayana said they are testing all doctors and other healthcare professionals who have fever or other symptoms.
Two from Gandhi
A senior resident doctor and a post-graudate student from Gandhi Hospital tested positive on Thursday. A lab assistant too was detected with the infectious disease. The hospital’s administration is on the edge as samples were collected from more junior and senior doctors.
“We are expecting a big number of positive cases among us,” sources in the hospital said. Till date, two junior doctors, one senior resident doctor, one associate professor and a lab technician from the hospital tested positive. After spike in cases among doctors who worked in non-COVID hospitals, doctors at Gandhi Hospital said that there are high chances that some among them too are infected, but asymptomatic.
The first cluster of cases among doctors in the State was detected among the professionals who attended to patients in Osmania General Hospital and hospitals affiliated to it. Till date, a total of 24 of them tested positive.
Of them, 15 are house surgeons and post-graduate students who stay in Osmania Medical College (OMC) hostel in Koti. Others include a junior doctor who works at Government ENT Hospital, another at Niloufer Hospital. Swab samples were collected from a total of 296 students in the hostel.
OMC principal P Shashikala said that some hostel buildings were shut down. “Three out of four girls’ hostels, and one out of two boys’ hostel are closed. Under graduates are not staying in the hostel. The remaining students are accommodated in buildings which are not locked ,” Dr Shashikala said. The hostels are being sanitized.
Day scholars too were tested. Their results are awaited. Junior doctors said that a total of at least 15 cases were reported among junior and senior doctors at Modern Government Maternity Hospital, Petlaburj, but the hospital officials were not reachable through phone.
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