The coronavirus scare is taking a toll not just on the front line health workers but also the housekeeping staff engaged in hospitals and COVID-19 dedicated treatment facilities.

A video from a hospital in Bengaluru shows COVID-19 patients cleaning the hospital premises, mopping the floor of the isolation wards and also changing the sheets on their beds.

Local media reported that coronavirus infected patients at Victoria Hospital were made to clean their wards since the hospital is facing a shortage of adequate housekeeping staff.

Victoria Hospital is one of the dedicated-COVID-19 hospitals in the city. The state-run hospital is equipped with 500 beds for patients infected with the coronavirus. Additionally, there are 14 COVID-19 patients in Victoria Hospital’s ICU (Intensive Care Unit) as well.

Reports suggest that the patients also are facing issues with the regular availability of food and water in the hospital. It also said that cleanliness and hygiene protocols were being flouted by the hospital administration for the last four days.

The News Minute reported that such incidents were occurring due to the fear experienced by the hospital’s housekeeping staff.

‘The issue regarding housekeeping staff cropped up after a few staff members tested positive. When there are positive cases, along with the patients, their primary contacts also go into quarantine. It also led to reluctance among housekeeping staff to continue showing up for work,’ the doctor said.

There is an element of risking lives when the situation is about cleaning the COVID-19 wards, medical gowns and instruments. Quarantine and maintaining social distancing is a luxury that the housekeeping staff from low-income backgrounds cannot afford which might put their families lives at risk.

‘They have families and children and most of them are scared to come into contact with patients in isolation,’ the doctor added.

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