Two premier health institutes in the city — National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) and Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences — have been affected by COVID-19.
While six staffers at NIMHANS tested positive on Saturday after they handled a 34-year-old female patient with mental health disorder last week who later tested positive, 13 staff members at Jayadeva have been quarantined, as a cardiac patient who died in the hospital on Friday tested positive on Saturday.
Last week, the psychiatry emergency services ward at NIMHANS was sealed for fumigation and sanitisation after a patient brought there tested positive for COVID-19. Psychiatry emergency services were shifted to an adjacent building for two days. Thirteen in-patients from the ward and 36 staff members were identified as high-risk contacts of the patient and quarantined.
According to K.S. Meena, Additional Professor and Head of the Department of Mental Health Education, NIMHANS, six female staffers who were under quarantine tested positive on Friday. All of them have been shifted to the COVID-19 ward in Victoria Hospital.
At Jayadeva, a 74-year-old heart patient who was brought with complaints of chest pain and breathing difficulty on June 11 died in the ICU on June 12. “Although she had long-standing cardiac issues, we tested her for COVID-19 after her death in our in-house COVID-19 lab and her oxygen saturation was low. She tested positive on Saturday,” said C.N. Manjunath, institute director. Following this, five doctors, two Group ‘D’ workers and six staff nurses have been quarantined.
“Although our ICU staff work with N95 masks and face shields, we have quarantined them as a precautionary measure. We have also shifted patients on two beds on either side of the cubicle of the positive case to an isolation ICU. Family members have also been quarantined,” Dr. Manjunath said. He asserted that it was important to test even the dead, if they had SARI/ILI symptoms.
308 new cases
Meanwhile, Karnataka reported 308 new cases and three deaths on Saturday. Bengaluru Urban saw 31 cases on Saturday. The new cases included a three-member family of an orthopaedist.
According to the bulletin, the death toll has now touched 81. One death in Chickballapur that occurred a few days ago has now been identified as a non-COVID case. With 308 new cases, the total number of positive cases has touched 6,824 and this includes 3,648 who have been discharged.
Among the new cases, Kalaburagi reported the highest with 67 cases. Yadgir and Bidar had 52 and 42 cases, respectively. Udupi reported 14 new cases and with this, the total cases in this coastal district touched 1,005.
According to sources, although a total of nine deaths have been reported in the city in the last 24 hours, the State health bulletin has recorded only three deaths, of which two are from Bengaluru and one from Dharwad.
According to sources, although a total of nine deaths have been reported in the city in the last 24 hours, the State health bulletin has recorded only three deaths, of which two are from Bengaluru and one from Dharwad.
Sources said apart from those in the bulletin, five deaths have been reported in Victoria Hospital from Friday till Saturday afternoon. Another 60-year-old male died at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases on June 12 and his report returned positive on Saturday. This is apart from the death at Jayadeva. These deaths do not figure in the bulletin. A senior health official said only those deaths that had been reported by the BBMP surveillance officers had been added to the bulletin.
Although the NIMHANS positive cases were admitted to Victoria Hospital on Friday night and Saturday morning, they do not figure in the bulletin either.
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