13 HEALTH WORKERS TEST POSITIVE

NEW DELHI: About 13 healthcare workers from different hospitals of Delhi have been tested positive for Coronavirus as of Saturday. The affected healthcare workers include both doctors and nurses.

While prestigious hospitals like AIIMS and Safdarjung have one and two cases respectively, one positive case has been reported from Maharaja Agrasen as well.

At Maharaja Agrasen hospital, a 38-year-old doctor was quarantined on March 30 after a woman from Rohtak, who was admitted to the ICU from March 10 to 30, tested positive. She left the hospital against medical advice. “Around 10 medical staff have been quarantined,” said a senior doctor from the hospital.

Meanwhile, at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, a 25-yearold nursing orderly tested positive. “He (the nursing orderly) has been quarantined and around 30 workers, in addition to his family, were tested; all of them tested negative. He has been isolated at home,” said Dr AK Mehta, medical superintendent of the hospital.

A doctor at the Delhi State Cancer Institute has also tested positive for coronavirus. She had recently visited some relatives who returned from the UK. Meanwhile, two nursing officers have also been tested positive. One doctor from Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Hospital has also been tested positive.

A doctor working in the ICU ward of a private hospital, a nursing orderly at a government hospital and two nurses at the state-run cancer institute are among four healthcare workers who tested positive for COVID-19 in the city on Friday.

A doctor couple from a Mohalla Clinic in Delhi had contracted the disease. Their teenage daughter was also infected. He contracted it from a patient who also returned from Saudi Arabia. Around 900 people who came in contact with the doctors had to be quarantined.

Meanwhile, resident doctors at Safdarjung Hospital have spoken out on the shortage of protective gear. In a letter they have requested for concerned authorities to donate equipments. At the hospital about there is about 500 faculty, 1,700 resident doctos, 2,000 nursing staff who are facing the shortage of protective gear.

“We are in dire need of 50,000 PPE kits, 50,000 N95 masks, 3,00,000 triple layer masks and 10,000 hand sanitizers (500 ml bottles). Kindly donate the above mentioned equipment and consumables in as much amount as feasible,” said the statement from Resident Doctor’s Association at Safdarjung Hospital.