12 PG doctors test Covid positive at Hyderabad's Osmania Medical College

Hyderabad: A total of 12 post-graduate (PG) doctors have tested from Osmania Medical College (OMC) have positive for Coronavirus including four gynaecologists. The results of 170 samples taken from other PG students are awaited.

A canteen worker in the mess used by doctors at the Petlaburj Government Maternity Hospital was suffering from cold and fever. But he came to work despite the symptoms, and this spread the infection among the PG students, according to sources at OMC. The worker tested positive on May 29; The post-graduates started showing symptoms after that. He is now undergoing treatment at Gandhi Hospital.

An aggrieved post-graduate student said, “ICMR guidelines for testing healthcare workers are frequently not being followed. Asymptomatic direct or high-risk contacts of a confirmed case have to be tested on day five and 10. But that is not happening.”

The student said the isolation ward in Osmania General Hospital looks like a normal general ward as no guidelines are being followed. “Suspected and positive patients are mingling with each other. Due to this, there is rise in cases and extreme exposure of healthcare workers,” the student said.

Telangana Junior Doctors Association has approached director of health and medical education Dr K. Ramesh Reddy and told him that regular screening of healthcare workers and that sufficient personal protection equipment and N 95 masks must be provided to all. They have also appealed for more testing of healthcare workers as this incident has shown how vulnerable they all are.

TJUDA has also requested that pregnant healthcare workers must be exempted from Covid-19 duties. The post-graduates and junior doctors say there is a dire need to ramp up testing, and enforce strict containment measures to limit the exposure of healthcare workers. They have demanded a head-on approach to testing and tracing to control the situation.