Lucknow: A resident doctor in the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) who has been treating Covid-19 patients has tested positive for the disease in Lucknow Wednesday alerting the University-Hospital authorities prompting them to step up efforts to fight the deadly disease.
The doctor, who has been quarantined in the same University hospital, was a part of the 15-member medical team. Other members were immediately put on test and quarantined.
“All 14 members tested negative and the infected doctor is also doing well,” Dr Sudhir Singh, University spokesperson told FPJ.
There were reports that the crew members were not provided with adequate protection, such as N95 masks, which had possibly led to this case.
Dr Singh clarifies, “The N95 masks are used only for sample collections. These reduce oxygen intake of the wearer by 95% and hence can’t be used for longer period. This doctor got infected because he was the first point of contact for the patient who later tested positive.”
A woman doctor, who had returned from Canada, and her relative had tested positive for the deadly virus and have been undergoing treatment in the KGMU, the apex medical university with largest public hospital in UP.
Alerted by the development, the KGMU called an urgent board meeting in the afternoon.
The 12-member board decided to cancel MBBS, BDS, Nursing and other undergraduate courses till 2 April.
“We have also decided to cut down the patient count so that we can fight with corona in a better way. Hence, OPD registration will henceforth be done till 11 am, unlike the usual timing of 1 am,” Dr Singh said.
Dr Singh added that leaves of entire medical and paramedical staff has been cancelled. The university has also issued a directive that any employee can be put on corona duty
HC shuts down after a court official found positive
The Allahabad High Court and the Lucknow bench have been closed down for three days (till 21 March) for sanitization work after a court official posted in Allahabad tested corona positive on Wednesday. The assistant registrar had returned from Indonesia last week.
