26 more Jaslok Hospital staffers test positive for Covid-19

A day before south Mumbai’s Jaslok Hospital was set to open up their services, 26 healthcare providers including five doctors tested positive for Covid-19, on Sunday.

A day before south Mumbai’s Jaslok Hospital was set to open up their services, 26 healthcare providers including five doctors tested positive for Covid-19, on Sunday. The total number of infected staffers at the hospital now stands at 57.

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At present, all the infected staffers have been isolated while two doctors whose condition have been kept under observation at the intensive care unit (ICU).

Testing all quarantined staffers was part of the protocol laid by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The 26 new Covid-19 patients were asymptomatic.

Last month, 21 nurses at the hospital had tested positive, following which the hospital authorities collected swab samples of 100 staffers and quarantined them at a hostel in Ballard Pier. Although most staffers had tested negative, they were quarantined for 14 days as is mandatory. BMC, as a precautionary, sealed the hospital.

“Positive cases have come from the quarantined staff in the hostel who were tested again before they could resume work. The second round of swab testing showed that some staffers were asymptomatic but diagnosed positive for the virus. We are taking precautions to ensure the safety of our staff and patients. We have tested over 1,600 of our staff, nurses and doctors and adopted precautionary measures to ensure their safety,” said a hospital spokesperson.