With 200 staffers in quarantine, DMCH’s battle gets tougher

COMMITTEE FORMED TO SCREEN STAFFERS AND BRING BACK THOSE WHO DID NOT DIRECTLY COME IN CONTACT WITH PATIENTS

LUDHIANA: Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH)’s battle with the virus continues to get tougher as over 200 of its staff members, including doctors, have been asked to go into home isolation after coming in contact with Covid-19 positive patients.

Of these patients, several had been brought to the emergency ward of the hospital and were found Covid-19 positive later.

The hospital has now set up a five-member committee, chaired by Dr Rajoo Singh Chhina, dean (academics) and chairperson of the Hospital Infection Control Committee, to screen its staffers and bring back those who didn’t directly come in contact with the patients, such as those who crossed the area where the Covid-19 patient was kept. Four days ago, a two-year-old girl from Mandeep Nagar in Choti Haibowal, who was rushed to the hospital with abdominal pain, was found to be infected.

Doctors performed an emergency intestinal surgery on her, following which her samples were sent for Covid testing. After the child tested positive, DMCH authorities asked 35 employees, including, doctors and paramedical staff, to go into home quarantine for 14 days.

On May 13, as many as 160 employees, including doctors and paramedical staff of DMCH were sent into home isolation after two ward boys tested positive. On Wednesday, the reports of 119 staffers, who were tested after the ward boys were found infected, came in negative.

The hospital’s Covid in-charge Dr Ashwani Chaudhary said the employees were quarantined as a preventive measure.Sources said that besides a patient from Jammu, the staff had come in contact with three Ludhiana patients from Khanna, Rajpura and Faridkot, who were scheduled to undergo surgeries at the hospital