2nd Delhi Hospital Sealed In 24 Hours After Staff Infected With COVID-19

A second hospital in Delhi has been sealed in 24 hours after 44 staff including doctors were found infected with coronavirus, officials said. Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital in north-west Delhi's Jahangirpuri will remain sealed until building has been completely sanitised, officials said. Patients who are already receiving critical care are still being looked after but no new patients will be taken in, the hospital said.

The latest sealing comes less than 24 hours after a nurse at Hindu Rao Hospital who had been working at different sections of the building for the last two weeks tested positive for coronavirus.

The decision to shut both hospitals was taken as a preventive measure to contain any spread of the virus, officials said.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation on its website says Hindu Rao Hospital is the largest hospital in north Delhi.

"Many positive cases have come from the area (Jahangirpuri)," Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said, news agency ANI reported.

The test reports of more hospital staff are awaited and all medical services have been shut, the Delhi health department said.

The civic agency on Saturday also issued new orders and standard operating procedures for its staff on how suspected coronavirus cases and quarantined people are to be handled and looked after, PTI reported.

Delhi has so far reported 2,625 cases of COVID-19. In the last 24 hours, 111 news cases and one death have been reported. The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in the national capital is now 54.

Plasma therapy trials on four coronavirus patients in Delhi have produced encouraging results, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said earlier this week, adding after a few more trials, his government would seek permission from the centre to use the treatment on a large scale.