17 more from shelter home test Covid +ve

nNEWDELHI: Seventeen occupants of a shelter near the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Friday, more than a week after 21 from the same shelter were found to have the contagious infection.

The shelter houses outstation patients who visit the national capital to be treated at the premier institute, as well as their caretakers and relatives. Officials said the infections in the shelter could be traced to two kidney patients who tested positive on May 18. Friday’s positive cases take the total number of Covid-19 cases in the shelter to 40.

All of the occupants who tested positive on Friday were quarantined contacts of the 21 who tested positive on May 21.

Apart from the 17, an occupant of another shelter that also houses outstation AIIMS patients also tested positive. Both shelters are run by the Delhi Urban Shelterimprovementboard(dusib).

District magistrate (south) BM Mishra, said, “All the 18 occupants tested positive on Friday and were shifted to AIIMS Jhajjar quarantine facility. We requested the AIIMS authorities to admit these occupants to the hospital here, but they preferred to send them to Jhajjar.”

A senior district official said, “Initially after the 21 cases were reported from here, we requested the shelter authorities to move the remaining occupants out to nearby schools, but they refused. The shelter home should have been cleared and sanitised.”

DUSIB member Bipin Rai, said, “We are getting the shelters sanitised regularly and if need arises we will move the remaining occupants for a while to nearby schools for sanitising the complex. There are only a few people left in the large space, so social distancing is not an issue.”