All elective procedures and non-emergency services at the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology will be deferred till Thursday after several patients and medical staff tested positive for COVID-19 in the last few weeks.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy sessions have been deferred and the operation theatre has been closed. However, emergency services will remain open.
In the last three weeks, 12 cancer patients and 10 staff, including doctors and nurses, tested positive for COVID-19 at the institute.
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C. Ramachandra, institute director, said: “We have identified around 60 of their primary contacts, who are under quarantine and will be tested for COVID-19. We found that the infection spread through one of the technicians. Besides this, a nursing staff may have contracted it from family.”
He added that all patients who enter the hospital have to undergo COVID-19 test at the entrance, and only later get admitted. The director also said that the premises would be disinfected this week. While the patient inflow in the hospital prior to COVID-19 was over 1,500, currently, there are around 1,000 patients and attenders in the institute.
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Over the last two days, 12 people in National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) have tested positive. This includes four patients and a caretaker, while the remaining are staff. Shashidhara H.N., resident medical officer of the institute, said they were investigating the source of the spread. He also said that patient services remained unaffected as the institute was shifting the departments to other blocks.