In a distressing news related to COVID-19, as many as 80 doctors from Delhi’s Saroj Hospital tested positive while 1 senior surgeon died. The doctor that succumbed to the deadly virus gave close to 30 years of his career to the hospital.
As the nation tries to crawl its way out of the havoc the pandemic has created, these incidents are especially alarming, given how the country’s health infrastructure is already overburdened.
Background
Delhi’s Saroj Hospital, which was earlier in news for going to the court for oxygen supply issues, met with another disaster as 80 doctors were tested positive for the deadly COVID-19. In the nation’s capital, a total of 13,23,567 individuals have been confirmed for the virus while 19,344 people have succumbed to the disease and have died.
Details
On May 9th, Delhi’s Saroj Hospital found itself kicked into chaos when as many as 80 doctors were found to be positive for COVID-19. The news was especially grim as 1 resident surgeon named DR. A.K. Rawat, who spent 30 decades at the hospital, died.
Saroj Hospital’s CMO (Chief Medical Officer) Dr. P.K. Bhardwaj spoke to NDTV and was quoted saying, “Around 80 medical staff have tested positive between April and May. Dr. A.K. Rawat was my junior, a surgeon. He succumbed to COVID-19 yesterday.”
Dr. Bharadwaj gave more information on Dr. A.K. Rawat’s condition and said-
“He (Dr. Rawat) was brave enough, he was fighting.” The CMO of the hospital also recalled the last conversation with the now deceased surgeon and said, “He said ‘I shall feel alright, I am vaccinated.”
Due to high number of doctors getting infected with the virus at Saroj Hospital, all the OPDs have been closed for operation as of now.
Over 300 doctors and paramedic staff COVID-19 positive in Delhi
Meanwhile, there are reports that state that more than 300 doctors and health-care workers across Delhi have tested positive for the virus thus far. The news is an alarming one as the country’s hospitals are overburdened due to increasing number of fresh cases and fatalities so far. Currently, there are as many as 86,232 active cases in the country’s capital.
26-year-old Doctor succumbs to disease
Earlier on Sunday, May 9, a young resident at Delhi’s Guru Teg Bahadur hospital also died just a few hours after he found out that he was positive for the virus. The young 26-year-old doctor named Anas Mujahid was working round-the-clock at the GTB hospital after completing his MBBS internship in January 2021.
The same day, Delhi registered new 13,336 COVID-19 cases and added 273 more deaths to the total tally. Although the numbers do indicate a small dip in daily new cases since April 12, one should note that it can be due to the fact that the city only conducted 61,552 tests.
Saroj Hospital approaches Delhi High Court for oxygen related issues
Earlier, Saroj Hospital in Delhi approached the Delhi HC due to the fact that it was running out of oxygen supply. The hospital sought immediate directions from the court and asked the court to make available oxygen supply.
According to the hospital there were as many as 130 COVID-19 patients, out of which 70 were critical and 48 people were on ventilator support requiring constant flow of oxygen. According to Saroj Hospital’s petition to the Delhi HC, the hospital required a daily supply of 300 Cu/M of medical grade oxygen. In its plea, the hospital stated how the hospital already had 172 patients on its waiting list with 64 of them requiring high amount of oxygen.
The hospital also told the High Court in its plea that it required 8 hours of oxygen reserve but there were incidents when the hospital had only 10-15 minutes of oxygen left at its disposal.
Also read: “Water above the head now”- Delhi High Court directs Centre to provide oxygen “by whatever means”
