13 persons test positive for COVID-19 in NEIGRIHMS

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJuly 13, 2020

A total of 13 persons including a health worker have been tested positive for COVID-19 at the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health & Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS).

The hospital has been temporarily shut down after being exposed to a COVID-19 patient recently.

Director of NEIGRIHMS, Dr P Bhattacharyaa told reporters on Monday that 12 are patients and one nurse working in a non-COVID area in the hospital.

“We have commenced emergency services since yesterday and we are (on the job) to test all high risk contacts,” he said.

Medical Superintendent Dr Noor Topno informed a total of 111 persons have been identified as high risk contacts while 121 are low risk contacts. He said that 30 samples were tested of which 6 patients were positive and 24 were negative.

He said that 6 of the 13 persons tested positive are high risk contacts of the index patient, who is from the BSF while two cases are having history of inter-state travel to Kolkata and North Tripura and five others were detected during screening.

He however said the health worker, who was tested positive for COVID-19, has come from a different ward and not from the orthopedic ward, which has been declared as a containment zone.

“She (nurse) was not connected to the ward where the BSF patient was admitted. She has not worked in COVID-19 areas nor she was having any contact with COVID staff or patients,” Dr Noor said.

Asked, the medical superintendent said it appears that the nurse has not got the infection from NEIGRIHMS and the list of high risk contacts in the area she was working has been drawn.

“Presumptive information is that she has not got it from the hospital. This lady is staying in Demseiniong locality and there is a possibility she might have picked it up from that area. However, we cannot say till the report comes,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Director of NEIGRIHMS informed that they are proposing to increase testing capacity of the institute, which at present is running 600 RT-PCR tests in a day.

“If we are successful, testing capacity will go up by another 200-300,” he said. Dr Bhattacharyya also informed that the NEIGRIHMS has not stopped the dialysis treatment at any point of time and the service is available for patients.