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In Telangana Coronavirus Hits Doctors And Health Authorities Hard

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: Admin : 2020-06-05

HYDERABAD: Authorities went into a huddle on Thursday after 16 more doctors and 7 healthcare workers tested positive for Covid-19 and cases began spreading among PG and resident doctors in six state-run hospitals.

With 47 doctors and 10 healthcare workers testing positive and many being symptomatic, few of the hospitals are likely to have turned into super-spreading zones, health experts said. Fresh samples of 50 doctors and 20 health workers were taken to the lab for tests.

The latest to test positive are four cardiology residents from Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), one professor and eight other doctors from the remaining hospitals. Majority of those who tested positive were asymptomatic, a reason for further concern. Now, the demand for testing of all doctors and contract health workers is also gaining strength with the Telangana State Medical Employees and Workers Union raising the demand for testing about 3,000 workers.

The workers union has demanded a 10% salary incentive, which was announced by the state government three months back, be given to them immediately, failing which they will begin an agitation from June 8. “At the King Koti hospital, sanitation workers and security staffers tested positive recently. While there are over 10 workers who tested positive so far, they are all asymptomatic. If the government doesn’t test, many others might go unnoticed and spread the virus to their families and within the hospitals. Also since we are paid a meagre Rs 9,000 salary for working in such risky conditions and many are getting infected with the virus, the incentive must be paid upfront,” said M Narasimha, president of the union.

The junior doctors and resident doctors have already been demanding that all doctors who wish to be tested be allowed to do so without any protocol. “Several PG residents who wanted to get tested have been unable to undergo tests so far as hospital authorities did not allow them to go for testing. Already, the lack of proper measures have resulted in the spread of the virus and its high time that measures should be put in place,” said a representative of the Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA).

Meanwhile, in the wake of the increasing cases, state health authorities issued special directive to all teaching medical colleges in GHMC area, announcing measures like dividing faculty and staff into two batches and keeping each batch in quarantine consecutively for a period of 7 days, cancellation of leaves and PPEs for staffers as per protocol.

Junior doctors at the Modern Government Maternity Hospital (MGMH), Peltaburj where nearly 10 doctors have tested positive, alleged that they were not allowed to undergo tests and had approached health authorities on Thursday. However, as per the directive testing will be done in symptomatic cases only. “If any staff member develop symptoms, immediately he/ she should be isolated and tested. If found positive for Covid-19, they should be sent for treatment and a replacement should come from the quarantine pool of staff. All precautionary measures should be strictly followed as per standard protocols,” said Dr K Ramesh Reddy, Director Medical Education (DME), Telangana in the directive.

Disclaimer: This article is sourced from health.economictimes.indiatimes.com without any changes in the contents thereof. Only the title has been edited by Meddco.com The facts and the opinions appearing in the article do not reflect and describe views of meddco.com

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