Why City Docs Are Falling Prey To Covid

1, 290 health workers infected so far in Delhi, non-Corona hospitals worst-hit2, Experts blame rise of asymptomatic patients and shortage of protection kits

- Gulam Jeelani, Chayyanika Nigam and Isha Gupta

On Saturday, a doctor of Delhi’s Kasturba Gandhi Hospital tested positive for coronavirus. The patient was the second doctor of the hospital to get infected.

On Thursday, a nurse of Hindu Rao Hospital was found infected. Earlier, a nurse of the same hospital had tested positive, sending 76 colleagues in quarantine. Reports of another 42 staff members are awaited.

The same day, four staffers at AIIMS tested positive, taking the total there to 20. A junior resident doctor at GB Pant Hospital was also found infected. Six other doctors had to be isolated after that.

These are only some of the latest cases. At least 290 health care workers, including doctors and nurses, across 25 Delhi hospitals have been infected so far.

Overall, the city has reported nearly 3,700 Covid-19 cases. So, one in 13 infected people is a health care worker. The situation is so alarming that Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan described it as “worrying” during a video conference held earlier this week with Delhi L-G Anil Baijal, health minister Satyendar Jain and surveillance officers to discuss Covid-19 containment strategies.

WORRYING TREND

Most of these cases have come from non-Covid hospitals. Experts fear a huge number of asymptomatic patients apart from shortages of PPE kits might be a reason for health care workers catching the disease alarmingly.

In many cases, hospitals in coronavirus hotspots are reporting more cases. Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital, which has 75 cases so far, is located in Jahangirpuri in North Delhi which is one of the worst-affected hotspots with over 100 cases.