Patparganj hospital closed for 3 days after TB specialist doctor tests positive

The doctor was a Tuberculosis specialist and is said to have attended to dozens of patients in the last two weeks. He is now admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital in Tahirpur.

One of the public hospitals for respiratory diseases in east Delhi, Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Chest Hospital in Patparganj, had to be shut for three days on Tuesday following a 63-year-old doctor here testing positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

At least 55 doctors, nurses and staff who work with the infected doctor have been quarantined.

The doctor was a Tuberculosis specialist and is said to have attended to dozens of patients in the last two weeks. He is now admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital in Tahirpur.

“He suffers from hyper-anxiety. This is the only pre-existing medical condition we know of. Currently, we are not sure how he got infected, but we are helping the district administration trace his contacts,” said Arun Kumar, spokesperson of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation, which runs this hospital.

At least 55 other doctors, nurses and lower staff, who work here and have interacted with him in the last few days, have been quarantined at home for three days to check if they develop any symptoms. “The names of two staff members who worked closely with him—an X-Ray technician and a ward boy—have been sent for Covid tests,” said a doctor who works here but declined to give his name.

Meanwhile, a 26-year-old gynaecologist working at the North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Kasturba Hospital near Jama Masjid was also found Covid-positive on Wednesday, following which at least seven doctors and four nurses, who worked closely with her, have been quarantined at home. “They will be tested soon,” the north body’s spokesperson Ira Singhal said.

Kasturba Hospital is the second biggest hospital of the north corporation after Hindu Rao Hospital in Malka Ganj. The Hindu Rao Hospital had to be shut for a day, on Sunday, following a nurse testing Covid-positive there.

A ward helper also tested Covid-positive at the north body’s Rajan Babu TB Hospital in GTB Nagar on Tuesday night. “Her husband, who also works in the same hospital, has tested negative. Three other ward helpers have been asked to quarantine themselves at home,” Singhal said.