Impulse, Insaf Barakah hospitals’ doctors, nurses contract COVID-19

A number of doctors and nurses of two hospitals in Dhaka have contracted the coronavirus (COVID-19), forcing the authorities to shut one down while the other has closed two departments.

The two hospitals are Insaf Barakah Kidney and General Hospital at Moghbazar and Impulse Hospital at Tejgaon, reports bdnews24.com.

After testing positive, a doctor also accused Impulse of lying and evading responsibilities - charges denied by the hospital authorities.

Insaf was closed on Tuesday after a total of nine staff members, including doctors and nurses, tested positive on Monday.

A suspected coronavirus patient visited the hospital two weeks ago and all the infected doctors, nurses and staff members came into close contact with the patient, the hospital’s spokesperson Md Shorful Islam said.

The other medical workers of the hospital went into quarantine while the patients left, he said. There were 14 patients at the hospital before the closure.

As many as 40 health workers of Impulse went into quarantine after four doctors and two nurses tested positive for the virus.

One of the infected doctors, who was working as the acting registrar at the hospital’s gynaecology department, said  earlier that the hospital “falsely” claimed she contracted the virus from her husband, a civil servant who tested negative.

Asked about the allegation of “lying” about the source of the doctor’s infection, the hospital’s Chief Operating Officer Khadiza Juma said no COVID-19 patient came to the hospital. “Then how does she say that she was infected in the hospital?” the official asked.

But later Khadiza confirmed that three other doctors also contracted the virus and the hospital closed its gynaecology and surgery departments.

“We are not clear how the virus infected so many people,” she said.