23 medicos test positive for Covid-19 in Hyderabad

In a span of three-days, 23 Post Graduate medicos who were discharging their duties at various teaching hospitals affiliated to Osmania Medical College (OMC) have tested positive for Covid-19 and were shifted to Gandhi Hospital for isolation.

Apart from OMC medicos, four senior cardiologists from Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) and three CATH lab technicians too tested positive for coronavirus, triggering a series of measures aimed at disinfection of the cardiology unit and quarantining close contacts of the doctors and technicians.

The medicos from Modern Government Maternity Hospital (MGMH), Petlaburj, appear to have been worst hit with nine of them testing positive for Covid-19. They included three from Microbiology, two from Dermatology, one each from General Surgery, Anaesthesia, Orthopaedics and one PG aspirant who had completed his MBBS and was preparing for PG



examination in the library of OMC campus. Five interns i.e. House Surgeons from the OMC have also tested positive.

All the 280 PG medicos who are residing in the hostels at OMC campus have now undergone coronavirus testing and their results are expected on Thursday. “There are many medicos who are not staying in the hostels within the OMC and some are day scholars. So, we need to figure out these issues before declaring the results,” principal, OMC, Dr. Shashikala Reddy said.

Senior doctors said the spread of the coronavirus might have started from Maternity Hospital, Petlaburj, where many gynaecology PG medicos from the hostels in the OMC campus were posted to discharge their duties. “At present, there are nine gynaecology OMC medicos at Petlaburj who have tested positive and all of them are in isolation,” doctors pointed out.