8 mental hospital staffers too test corona positive

Nagpur: A day after a 70-year old patient of the Regional Mental Hospital tested Covid positive, eight staffers of the hospital too were found infected. The hospital authorities conducted tests of over 90 inmates of the ward where the first patient was admitted along with the staffers posted there.
None of the other patients has tested positive though.Among the positive employees, four staffers, engaged on contractual basis, were assigned to carry out works like cleaning and feeding the patient. Others include two matrons, who are full time employees, a lab technician and one other staffer.
The infected persons have been quarantined, said the hospital superintendent Dr Madhuri Thorat. None of the doctors has tested positive so far, she said.
The source of infection could not be traced. It started with 70-year-old woman patient who was admitted after she was found roaming around the city. From Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh, she had reached Nagpur after straying from her home. She was sent to the Government Medical Hospital (GMC) after she was developed jaundice and malignancy was also suspected.
Since she was bed-ridden, all personal care had to be done by the attendants. None of those who tested positive have any symptoms, said a source.
Now as the patient detected with Covid has been admitted to GMC, one attendant accompanies her round the clock. Three staffers engaged as attendants stay by her side on shift basis. Due to the mental illness, the patient cannot be left alone and a mental hospital employee has to be along with her constantly, said Thorat.
The hospital at present has 449 inmates. Other inmates will be tested if they show any symptom, said a source. It may not be possible to get all of them tested in one go as teams have to come from outside and the hospital staffers are not trained to take the samples.
Even according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines the tests have to be carried out only if symptoms are reported. Even the team collecting samples does not have the capacity to take more than 100 samples at a time, said the superintendent.
The patients are given masks but due to their temperament many of them do not wear it all the time and it is difficult to monitor them, said a source in the hospital.