The vulnerability of frontline workers led by doctors fighting Covid-19 yet again came to the fore with 142 doctors including 40 postgraduate students drafted for coronavirus duty at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGH) here in the last one week, taking ill.
This disconcerting development unfolded, even as Tamil Nadu on Sunday added 1,974 new Covid-19 positive cases to take the total to 44,661. While of the fresh cases, Chennai alone added 1,415 today, the total death toll due to the virus touched an alarming level of 435 with 38 more deaths- the highest so far confirmed on a single day in the past 13 weeks- due to the virus.
However, sources told DC that all the doctors who took ill suffered from only "mild symptoms" of Covid-19, which is not unusual in medical situations such as this, with a huge crisis unfolding in terms of numbers in greater Chennai and three adjoining districts in North Tamil Nadu.
Though other government and private hospitals also face this risk, the relatively cramped space at RGGH where the number of beds have been increased to 400, is partly responsible for this development, sources said. The Omandurar government hospital for instance is far more spacious.
The doctors at RGGH, who work on two daily shifts, are split into different groups and one group after a week are sent for 'home quarantine' as a precautionary measure, to help improve their immunity with nutritional supplements and rest; a week after that, they return to duty and the cycle continues. This gives them enough time-leg to overcome the mild infections of Covid-19 and there was no cause for alarm, the sources pointed out.
Even the RGGH dean, Dr R. Jayanthi is believed to be mildly infected by Covid-19 virus and has been advised home quarantine, sources said. Consequent on her going on leave, Dr K Narayanasamy, director and professor of Hepatology, Madras Medical College (MMC) has been given additional charge of dean of RGGH, according to an official order here.
Besides doctors, nurses, health workers, para-medics, ward boys and doctors on non-Covid duty also face this risk. In Mohan Kumaramangalam government hospital in Salem for instance, the wife of a 43-year-old sanitary worker of a family of four who had all tested positive for coronavirus, died on Sunday. Thirty others working in that ward in which the woman died, have now been "isolated", Salem hospital sources said. A 54-year-old nursing superintendent at RGGH also succumbed to the virus, as a result of repeat infection after she was cured, a late night report said.
COVID-19 claims cop's life
In another sad development, Covid-19 claimed the life of a policeman, a special sub-inspector in Chennai who died in Kancheepuram today, sources said. Flummoxed by 277 persons missing from various quarantine centres in the city, the Chennai Corporation has asked Cyber crime police to probe the matter, even as nine persons who walked out of their 'home quarantine' in hotspot of Tondairpet were sent to institutional quarantine.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Culture Minister, Mr. Ma.Foi. K. Pandiyarajan inaugurated a special 224-bed Siddha Medical Centre at the Ambedkar Arts College in Vysarpadi in North Chennai, where patients with mild coronavirus symptoms would be sent for treatment.
The death reports of the 38 fatalities due to Covid-19 confirmed today, made a very sad reading, with patients ranging from a 30-year-old woman in Chennai to an 82-year-old male again in Chennai. Of the 38 casualties, a majority of 31 suffered from co-morbidities, the Health department said.
