Rohtak: A doctor posted in the labour room of the Gynaecology Department at Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak was suspected by the authorities to be the super-spreader after 23 healthcare providers tested positive for Covid-19 till Tuesday.
With such a large number of medical practitioners contracting infection despite 13 of them taking the jab a month ago prompted the authorities to suspect the doctor for the spread.
Dr Pushpa Dahiya, Medical Superintendent of the hospital told ANI, "A total of 23 resident doctors of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department have tested positive for COVID-19 over a span of the last 14 days. Of these 23 doctors, 13 had already taken the vaccine."
"12 doctors out of the 14 took the first dose in the last week of February or in the first week of March. There are two doctors who took two doses of vaccines. They were infected with coronavirus within one week of getting the second dose," she further said.
"Initially there were two positive cases, then four and in the last 24 hours we are feeling that the positivity rate is getting very high and so we need to know the cause," she added.
"When the coronavirus pandemic started in the country, we made it mandatory that everyone admitted to the labor room had their RTPCR samples taken, health care workers and doctors have been reminded repeatedly of COVID-19 guidelines," she further said.
"5 doctors have been infected two times. It may be possible that they may be infected with different strains, we are not sure," she said.
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As per the latest media report by the Hindustan Times, PGIMS medical superintendent Dr Pushpa Dahiya has mentioned the possibility that the other doctors got infected after coming in contact with the gynaecology department doctor.
"Initially, the other doctors did not show any symptoms of the virus. We have started contact tracing after eight junior doctors tested positive in just a span of two days. The health of none of the medical staff is serious and all of them are in home isolation," she added while commenting on the matter.
She has further informed the daily that four patients visiting the gynaecology department have tested positive in the last month but none of them got infected from the doctors.
"Services of the labour room have been started from the civil surgeon's office. I have asked the health workers to sanitize the labour work and start services there after the completion of 48-hours. I have told the civil surgeon to send doctors to treat expecting mothers if required," the medical superintendent said.
Mentioning that most of the doctors had received the vaccine, Dr Dahiya further added, "Eight junior doctors did not take the vaccine jab due to some health complications. I admit that there is a rush at the gynaecology department but we are conducting tests of patients visiting there. There are some lapses on part of the doctors posted at the labour room, sometimes it happens due to negligence."
Giving more details about the matter, a senior doctor informed the daily that nine junior doctors recently shared some food and that led to the spread of the virus in eight of them.
"Three of them were posted in the labour room and all of them have tested positive. One of the eight turned out to be the super-spreader," the doctor added.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to make people aware to follow covid-19 norms even after vaccination, Dr Dahiya said, "Doctors who took two vaccine doses contracting the infection is a warning to those who are forgetting COVID-19 etiquettes after taking just one dose of vaccine. It is very risky. The antibodies will take time to form in the body. Everyone should take proper precautions for 28 days after getting the second dose of the vaccine. In spite of all this, the efficacy of the vaccine is only around 70 per cent, so precautions cannot be forgotten."
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