A Delhi government-run hospital was shut down after a doctor at the hospital tested positive for coronavirus, officials said on Wednesday, April 1.
The doctor worked at the Delhi State Cancer Institute’s preventive oncology department. The officials said that the hospital building’s OPD, offices and labs have been shut and are being sanitized. Those who came in contact with the doctor are also being quarantined.
The doctor is suspected to have contracted the infection from relatives who had returned from the UK.
“It is suspected that the doctor caught the infection from her brother and sister-in-law who had just returned from the UK. She had visited their house recently,” Delhi Health Minister Satyender Jain was quoted as saying byNDTV.
The doctor is admitted at the Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini, reportedHindustan Times.
Since the lockdown, the hospital treated around 100-150 cancer patients in OPD.
“We cannot take a risk. Only the cancer patient in emergent need of care is coming to the hospital right now and they are immunocompromised. We have to shut the OPD to sanitise the premises to ensure that no one gets it,” Dr BL Sherwal, director of the Delhi State Cancer Institute, was quoted by the media.
This is not the first case of doctors or healthcare workers testing positive with COVID-19 in Delhi. Earlier, 14 medics of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, including 6 doctors, were quarantined,NDTVreported.
Also, a doctor couple who worked in Delhi government-run Mohalla clinics had earlier tested positive for the virus. They are believed to have contracted the infection from a patient with a travel history to Saudi Arabia.