Delhi: Two hospitals temporarily shut within a day as several employees test positive for Covid-19

Two hospitals in Delhi have been shut in the last 24 hours after staff members were found to be infected with the coronavirus. Hindu Rao Hospital, the biggest facility in North Delhi, was shut late Saturday after a nurse tested positive for Covid-19, while Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital in Jahangirpuri is being sanitised after at least 44 employees contracted the virus.

Services at Jagjivan Ram Hospital were closed for new patients but those who are already receiving critical care will continue to be looked at, NDTV reported. The staff members who tested positive included doctors, ANI quoted the Delhi Health Department as saying. “Test reports of other staff members are awaited,” the department said.

Earlier in the day, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain told ANI that “around 40” staff members had been found positive. However, unidentified officials told IANS that 58 employees, including doctors and nurses, had tested positive, and 70% were asymptomatic.

“The process of testing staffers and their close contacts, including family members, is on,” an official told IANS. Six of the seven containment zones in North Delhi are in Jahangirpuri as the locality has reported several cases of infection.

Earlier, District Magistrate Deepak Shinde told The Indian Express that contacts of all healthcare workers who had tested positive were being traced.

The Hindu Rao Hospital was temporarily shut down for sanitisation and contact tracing after a nurse tested positive for Covid-19, PTI reported. “Since she has been on duty in various locations within the campus over the last two weeks, we are closing down the hospital till we fully sanitise and complete contact tracing,” North Delhi Municipal Corporation Commissioner Varsha Joshi said.

As of Sunday evening, Delhi had 2,625 positive cases of Covid-19, including 54 deaths and 869 recoveries.