Mumbai: Five staff, including nurses and other workers, of Tata Memorial Hospital in Parel, one of the oldest and largest cancer care and research centres in the country, have tested positive for COVID-19.
Four patients who visited a special Out Patient Department in the hospital and came in contact with one of the hospital staffers are also suspected to have contracted the virus. They have been placed under institutional quarantine, and samples collected from them have been sent for tests. Thousands of patients, often accompanied by their families, travel from across the country and stay for long duration in Mumbai to avail of cancer treatment at the hospital.
"We have had five hospital staff who tested positive. We have contacted all their possible and potential contacts and quarantined all those who were 'high risk'. Many of them were on leave when they contracted the infection. As we had started rotating staff on duty even 6 weeks back, we have adequate staff for our cancer care. All staff who tested positive are being cared for at our own hospital and we have arranged quarantine facilities for all those who need it. We are following WHO and ICMR guidelines for contact tracing, and decision on quarantine. We are also in the process of setting up a dedicated facility for patients who have cancer and COVID," said Dr CS Pramesh, Director, Tata Memorial Hospital.
