Three more nurses in Pune’s Sassoon Hospital have tested positive for COVID-19 even as authorities sealed off more parts of the city following an alarming spike in the number of new cases.
Interactive map of confirmed coronavirus cases in India
According to hospital authorities, the three apparently contracted the infection from their 32-year-old colleague who had been previously diagnosed for the virus, taking the tally of infected staff to four. The results of the three came in late on Tuesday.
“As of now, four members of our staff have tested positive and have been moved to the isolation ward in the new building. All of them have displayed mild symptoms and are in a stable condition,” said Ajay Chandanwale, Dean, Sassoon Hospital.
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Speaking to The Hindu , he said that a doctor too was displaying virus-like symptoms and that his throat swab samples would be sent for testing.
15 hospital staff quarantined
Meanwhile, more than 15 staffers, including, doctors and nurses, of a Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)-run hospital were quarantined on Tuesday after a pregnant woman tested positive for the pandemic.
More than 50 cases and four new deaths were reported from Pune district on Tuesday as the number of positive cases in Pune city exceeded the 300-mark to touch 316 while the death toll in the city rose to 34.
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This prompted authorities to seal off areas under 13 police stations and enforce lockdown measures even more stringently in these five police zones. The areas where a curfew-like situation prevails include Kasewadi, Bhavani Peth, Yerwada, Hadapsar and Kondhwa – the places which constitute the majority of the positive cases.
More than 250 cases and the majority of deaths have been reported from these highly-infected clusters.
Reaching out: Doctors distribute medicines to people at Dattawadi in Pune city.
Police officials said that only shops selling essential commodities such as vegetables, fruits, milk would be permitted to remain open between 10 a.m. and 12 noon, while all banks would remain shut and only ATMs would be open in these areas.
Last week, a 45-year-old nurse associated with the city’s Ruby Hall Clinic had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, prompting authorities to quarantine more than 25 of her colleagues.
A week ago, over 40 doctors and nurses of a medical college and hospital in Pimpri had been quarantined after an autorickshaw driver, who was undergoing treatment at the hospital for accident injuries, tested positive. The test results of all 42 staff later returned negative.
3 doctors test positive
Three junior doctors — an anaesthesiologist, a surgeon and a radiologist — at Bombay Hospital tested positive on Wednesday, taking the total number of affected staff to four. The doctors are staying in the same staff quarters where a radiologist who had earlier tested positive lived. Civic officials are now trying to trace their close contacts.
(With inputs from Jyoti Shelar)
