Mumbai ‘‘I was totally clueless that the female patient I was shifting to the ICU was infected with coronavirus," a Saifee Hospital nurse, who is currently admitted at Kasturba Hospital, after she tested positive for coronavirus, told The Free Press Journal on Tuesday.
The 44-year-old nurse, a resident of Kannamwar Nagar in Vikhroli, said she only found out four days later that the patient she was helping was Covid-19 positive.
Three members of the nurse’s family have also tested positive, and samples from two other persons she met have also been sent for tests. After the nurse was shifted to Kasturba hospital on Monday, her family members, including her husband and two teenaged daughters, too, were shifted to the hospital by the BMC.
After the family was moved out, the building they stayed in, and its peripheral area, were declared a ‘contaminated area’ and sealed by the BMC on Tuesday morning. "We have carried out the first phase of spraying disinfectant and will continue the process for a few days till we cover the entire building and the peripheral area.
We have found two others who met the nurse. Samples of these two people will be sent for lab testing on Wednesday. Meanwhile, we are also investigating and tracing other people whom she met this week," said a BMC official from S ward (Vikhroli-East, Kanjurmarg, Powai).
"Other staff too were tested after the patient turned out to be positive. However, I was told none of the other staff members working in that ward tested positive," the nurse told The Free Press Journal. The area’s local corporator, however, is flooded with calls from residents of the area who are "locked" inside the cordoned area.
"People are frantically calling me as if they are starving to death. People are not at all taking this coronavirus threat seriously, and I was appalled to see a crowd that thronged to see the nurse when she was being taken away by the BMC. We had to call the police to enforce the lockdown and then seal the building," said Upendra Sawant, the local corporator.
He added, “Despite the showdown on Monday, some people of the building and nearby area wanted to crowd around when the family of the nurse was taken to Kasturba by the BMC officials," Despite repeated attempts, authorities of Saifee Hospital could not be reached for comment on the nurse’s case.
