Around 18 people including seven doctors and 5 staff nurses have been tested positive for COVID-19 in Thiruvananthapuram Medical College on Monday. The newly infected health workers were working outside the COVID department. Patients admitted in Ortho, Surgery and super specialty departments have also been infected.
More than 150 people have been sent to quarantine centers. This includes 40 doctors and 75 nurses who came in contact with the infected. Authorities have warned that hostels and places where PG doctors and others reside can become a hotspot area.
Minister Kadakampally Surendran stated that the functioning of the Medical college hospital will not be affected by the isolation of hospital staffs including doctors.
Doctors of Chirayinkeezhu Taluk and Fort Hospital have also been tested positive. Patients admitted in other private hospitals in the state have also been infected by the deadly coronavirus. However, these numbers are yet to be released.
Earlier in June, in Thiruvananthapuram Medical College there were two incidents of COVID-19 patients committing suicide and the report was sort by the health minister regarding it. Another suicide attempt was reported from the COVID isolation ward of the hospital on July 16.
Meanwhile, with no reduction in the number of COVID-19 cases due to contact or with unknown source of infection, the lockdown implemented at the Thiruvananthapuram corporation limit has been extended till midnight of July 28. The capital-district on Sunday recorded 222 more coronavirus cases, of which as many as 203 are cases of local transmission.
So far, 2,68,128 samples have been tested and results of 7,797 samples are awaited, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan said.
India has reported over a million cases so far including over 25,000 deaths. The country is on the third place on the list of worst coronavirus-hit nations. The centre, however, has not declared that the nation has entered the community transmission stage.
