Five doctors among 21 staff in Karnataka's Kalaburagi hospital are positive

KALABURAGI: The pandemic has taken a huge toll on frontline workers at Jayadeva Cardiovascular Hospital in Kalaburagi with 21 staff including five cardiologists testing positive for the infection and the hospital being completely sealed.
The outbreak began with five doctors and several staff performing an angiogram on a man. Hours later, the staff learnt he was positive for the virus.The patient, a resident of Sedam taluk, had given throat swab and blood samples for tests after spiking a fever, but did not inform doctors at Jayadeva.
When his results came back positive, health department officials alerted Jayadeva hospital staff and 31were forced into home quarantine. Of the 31, 21 tested positive.
Lab technician beaten
Meanwhile, a health worker, who was lathi-charged by police on Tuesday evening during preparations for the lockdown, is refusing to return to duty. Anil Savalagi, who worked for a private lab and collected blood samples from various hospitals and from patients’ homes in Kalaburagi, suffered injuries and is now unwilling to go back to work. He said he showed his identity card, but police still beat him up.