Another Delhi Mohalla Clinic Doctor Has COVID-19

Coronavirus: Delhi has so far reported more than 80 COVID-19 cases, two deaths.

Another doctor at a mohalla (community) clinic in Delhi has tested positive for coronavirus or COVID-19. The woman doctor is the wife of the doctor at Delhi's Maujpur community clinic, who was tested positive last week.

The fresh case has been reported from northeast Delhi's Babarpur, about a km away from Maujpur. Patients who visited this clinic between March 12 and March 20 have been asked to quarantine themselves at their homes for next 15 days. It's not yet clear if the doctor had a history of foreign travel or came in contact with somebody who did. 

Delhi has recorded nearly 50 cases in the last two days as the  COVID-19 count crossed the 100-mark; two deaths have been reported from the city so far.  

The chain of infection at Maujpur started with a woman who returned from Saudi Arabia on March 10, and visited the clinic with symptoms of COVID-19. The doctor was exposed to the virus when the 38-year-old woman visited the clinic on March 12, according to Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain. Five days later, she tested positive. That day, the doctor was also admitted in hospital.

Five more persons had tested positive for the virus from direct contact with the woman - her mother, brother and two daughters, and a relative who picked her up from the Delhi airport on her arrival. Some 74 persons in her neighbourhood are also under watch.

Last week, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said community clinics would stay open regardless of this case, as the poor would otherwise be forced to seek out hospitals that are far away and costly. "They will take precautions," he said.

Mohalla clinics are community health centres set up by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi mainly for the economically weaker.

These cases are being reported at a time when India is under a total  lockdown for three weeks to control the spread of COVID-19, which has infected over 1,250 people across the country. At least 32 have died.