Infections among frontline medical staff minuscule: Health ministry

NEWDELHI: Healthcare professionals who have tested positive for Covid-19 in India are mainly medical staffers with a recent travel history or had come in contact with people carrying the virus and they outnumber those infected in the line of duty, health ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal said on Monday.

“There are two categories of infection largely seen among healthcare professionals: one is of those cases that had a travel history or contact history with a positive case and infected their colleagues through regular interaction. The number of this category of cases is higher as opposed to those who were infected in the line of duty,” he said.

“The number of healthcare workers who got infected in the line of duty is a very minuscule percentage; even though our effort from day one has been that our healthcare professionals on the ground follow all infection control practices to avoid contracting the infection,” he added.

Meanwhile, several research efforts are underway on Covid-19, and health, and science & technology minister Harsh Vardhan is looking at the work of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research labs that are working in close partnership with the private sector and other ministries.

The research projects are divided into five verticals: digital and molecular surveillance, rapid and diagnostic, new drugs/ repurposing of drugs and associated production processes, hospital assistive devices and personal protection equipment, and supply chain and logistics support systems.

“… using cutting edge technology at all levels for timely response to Covid-19. Live case tracking, case management and implementation of containment plans are also being done,” said Agarwal.