As many as 57 healthcare workers, including 40 doctors and seven nurses, at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital (ShSMCH) tested positive for Covid-19 until Wednesday.
Confirming the report, the hospital’s Director Dr Uttam Kumar Barua told Dhaka Tribune over the phone that the rest of the infected personnel include technicians and other medical staff.
“All of them are in home quarantine now,” he added.
Asked how they had contracted the disease, Dr Uttam said: “These health workers treat many patients at our hospital every day. Many of these patients may have been Covid-19 positive, but they received treatment by hiding relevant information about themselves.”
Besides, these healthcare personnel also provide treatment at the hospital’s outdoor department, he said. “There is a flu corner. We also collect swab samples for testing.”
He added that the pathology and radiology departments and the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital were in temporary lockdown after the health workers tested positive.
Those from the hospital’s pathology department who tested negative were now working with Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College’s pathology department, Dr Uttam said.
He said the radiology department would resume work after everyone there had been screened and tested.
He added that no patients were being moved to the ICU at the moment and admission of new patients at the paediatric department was also suspended after several medical officers of the department were found infected with Covid-19.
Admissions will resume after the quarantine period ends, he said.
“But our outdoor department is open in a limited manner to treat other patients,” said Dr Uttam.
On Wednesday, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases rose to 7,103 in Bangladesh, with 641 new cases between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon, according to the health authorities.
During this period, eight more people died from Covid-19, raising the death toll to 163.
Until Wednesday, a total of 440 doctors — fighting the pandemic from the frontline across the country — had tested positive for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to Bangladesh Doctors’ Foundation.
