More cases from city hospitals worry officials

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 26

With more Covid-19 positive cases coming up from city hospitals, it has made officials worrisome as transmission source tracking is becoming difficult and infected cases are becoming carriers.

In the past three days, four back-to-back cases from city hospitals have been reported. UT’s contact tracing and quarantine team officials are finding it difficult to trace the source of transmission in the cases coming from the hospitals.

“It is worrisome. People from outside go to hospitals to get treated. But, now more cases of people getting infected from hospitals are coming in. They are becoming a source of carrier. They need to work out a strategy and plan something like screening all staff,” said an officer preferring anonymity.

Contact tracing and quarantine nodal officer Anil Kumar Garg said: “Yes, it is difficult to zero down on them in contact tracing because they come in contact with n-number of people in hospitals. From patients to staff, they meet several people.”

Dr JS Thakur, chairman, Covid-19 Prevention and IEC Committee at the PGI, told Chandigarh Tribune that, “Infection-control measures should strictly be followed in hospitals. At the PGI, we do follow these strictly. We should consider universal screening in referral institutions. Worldwide infection rate is 10-20 per cent among health workers. We are no exception. Otherwise, the UT Administration has done a good job here.”

Health Secretary Arun Kumar Gupta said: “Naturally, hospital staff has higher possibilities of getting infected. There are asymptomatic cases and it only comes to light when they get infected. We are taking preventive measures such as providing PPE kits. We are also screening them from time to time, but it is not possible to screen 100 per cent of them.”

A PGI nurse tested positive today. She hails from Kurukshetra and lives in a hostel in Sector 12 here. A nursing officer from the GMCH-32 also tested positive today. He is a resident of Sector 32. About 40 persons, who came in contact with him, have been quarantined. Yesterday, a GMCH-32 ward boy was found positive. He lives in Mauli Jagran and 27 persons have been quarantined in this connection. On Friday, his colleague, another ward attendant, who lives in Bapu Dham Colony, had tested positive. Over 130 persons have been quarantined in this case.