Mumbai hospital shut after 26 nurses test coronavirus positive

New Delhi : The Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai’s Agripada has been closed on Monday after 26 nurses and three doctors were diagnosed positive to the coronavirus. The BMC declared the hospital as containment zone.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner (health), BMC, said they have sealed the hospital and the staffers are not allowed to go out until they test negative for a coronavirus test.

"It is the fault of the hospital administration that they didn’t take precautionary measures, due to which nearly 300 staffers have been quarantined. We have also set up a team to probe how the virus spread among so many people in a hospital setting," he said.

A Hindustan Times report earlier mentioned that the spread of virus is the clear case of negligence by the hospital administration.

Two suspected coronavirus patients were brought to the hospital on March 20. The suspect patients were kept in the general ICU from where two nurses contained the virus and tested positive on March 28.

But soon, 10 nurses got infected and later the infection spread to 26 nurses and three doctors.

"We have contracted the infection after we were exposed to suspected coronavirus patients who were undergoing treatment in a general ward at the hospital," said a nurse from the hospital who has been found positive.

The report claims that the staff has complained against the hospital and alleged that instead of putting the nurses into quarantine, the administration asked them to continue work, resulting in spreading of the virus to the staff members.

Meanwhile, the nurses who tested positive have been shifted to the hospital from their quarters in Vile Parle, while two of the infected doctors are admitted to Seven Hills and the third one to SL Raheja Hospital, Mahim.

The health authorities have also collected the swab samples of the staff and some of the patients who were admitted in the hospital.