2 emergency medical officers 'test positive' as death toll climbs to 7

Kolkata: Two emergency medical officers (EMOs) from Howrah District Hospital and a private hospital in South Kolkata have reportedly tested positive on Sunday causing serious concern for the Health department.

The EMO at Howrah District Hospital has been admitted to MR Bangur Hospital, while the other EMO from the private hospital has been admitted to Beliaghata ID Hospital. Both of them had treated COVID-19 affected patients or came in contact with the affected persons.

However, according to the bulletin issued by the Health department on Sunday evening, in the past 24 hours no COVID-19 positive cases were reported in the state. The death toll has, however, reached 7 in the state from 5 on Saturday. Meanwhile, a team of doctors from SSKM Hospital and Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) would be sent to MR Bangur Hospital for better treatment of the COVID-19 affected patients, sources in the Health department said. The team comprises an expert doctor each in medicine, pulmonology, cardiology and chest medicine. It may be mentioned here that a top official of the Howrah District Hospital had tested positive for COVID-19 on April 9.

Many of the doctors, nursing staff members and other health workers had been put under quarantine after the top official tested positive. The situation might have been triggered after a woman from Howrah's Salkia went undiagnosed and got admitted to the normal ward. The patient later died a few hours before her report came in positive.

Incidentally, the state Health department is going to make it mandatory for the anesthetists in the medical colleges and hospitals across the state to conduct surgeries on non COVID-19 patients wearing personal protective equipment (PPE).

The surgeons would, however, wear protective sterilised aprons. The anesthetists are more exposed to the patients as they put masks on the face of the patients before the surgery and there is a high possibility for them to get affected by the droplets.

Two layer gloves and three layer surgical masks would also be made mandatory for the doctors while conducting surgeries. SSKM Hospital authorities have already initiated the process in this regard, while the other medical colleges would soon follow the method. There are certain protocols laid out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the treatment of the patients, at a time when COVID-19 has been wreaking havoc across the globe.

In keeping with the standard practices set by WHO and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the state Health department has been issuing instructions to all the hospitals across the state including those demarcated as COVID-19 nodal hospitals.

Meanwhile, a private hospital in Teghoria has been sealed as there is a possibility of mass transmission. An elderly patient who had undergone dialysis in the hospital eventually tested positive for the virus. Many staff members, doctors and health workers have been put under quarantine. The CCU of another private hospital in Park Circus has also been sealed after a patient treated there tested positive for the virus. The doctors from this hospital and some of its staff members have been asked to remain under quarantine following the instruction of the Health department.