Covid 19

26 Nurses, 3 Doctors Test COVID-19 Positive at Mumbai’s Wockhardt Hospital

Mumbai’s Wockhardt Hospital has been declared containment zone by BMC after 26 nurses & 3 doctors tested positive for Coronavirus within a week.

Mumbai: The Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai has been declared a containment zone by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) after as many as 26 nurses and three doctors tested positive for COVID-19 in a span of one week.

The administration has barred the entry to and exit from the hospital until all the patients test negative twice consecutively, a civic official told The Times of India.

A probe has also been ordered to investigate the unprecedented spike in the number of cases and fast spread of COVID-19 at the Wockhardt Hospital, officials said.

Entry and exit to the hospital are banned until all the patients admitted at the hospital test negative twice.

The source of the infection has been traced to a 70-year-old heart attack patient, who was tested positive for coronavirus on March 27. Soon after, two nurses who had attended to the elderly patient, too, tested positive, following which several nurses began testing positive.

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An aggressive containment plan was released by Union Health Ministry on Sunday for large outbreaks of COVID-19, which includes buffer zones and sealing off areas for nearly a month. The strategy is meant to contain the illness caused by a novel coronavirus, first detected in China in December.

“It is unfortunate that such a big cluster of cases have come from a medical facility. They should have taken precautions,” said Suresh Kakani, the Additional Municipal Commissioner, adding that a team led by the executive health officer has been set up to probe how the coronavirus spread among so many in a hospital setting.

While the nurses who tested positive for COVID-19 have been shifted to the hospital from their quarters in Vile Parle, two of the infected doctors are admitted in SevenHills and one in SL Raheja Hospital, Mahim. Swab samples of more than 270 hospital staff and some patients have been sent for tests.

Meanwhile, the hospital’s canteen remains functional and will provide food to the staff and patients, but an officer and two constables have been posted to restrict movements, said senior inspector Savalaram Agawane of Agripada police station.

The 20-page document says the aggressive containment strategy will be scaled down only if no new cases of COVID-19 are reported for at least four weeks after the last confirmed test.

(Input from Agencies)

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