An emergency ward to the Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital in Bhagalpur, Bihar. Photo: Reuters/Danish Siddiqui
Patna: Above 500 doctors and health workers of the two leading hospitals in Patna – AIIMS and Patna Medical College and Hospital – have been infected by the virus during the ongoing second wave, sources in the two hospitals said on Wednesday.
Altogether 384 employees of AIIMS Patna, including doctors, nurses, safai karamcharis and others have come under the impact of the virus during the course of the second wave so far, its medical superintendent C.M. Singh told PTI.
Singh said he does not have the break up, but in total there are 384 infected AIIMS staff here.
PMCH superintendent Dr Indu Sekhar Thakur said more than 125 of its staff have tested positive so far.
He said the list includes 70 doctors and over 55 nurses and other health workers.
AIIMS and PMCH along with another state-run Nalanda Medical College and Hospital are catering to a large number of COVID-19 patients in the state capital.
The PMCH superintendent said they have arranged separate isolation space for its infected employees.
PMCH, the century-old premier hospital of Bihar, has a facility of around 105 beds for the COVID-19 patients barring its staff and all are occupied at present, Thakur said.
AIIMS Patna has expanded its bed capacity to 250 seeing the arrival of more and more coronavirus affected patients and all the beds are full.
The PMCH Superintendent said that due to the infection of a large number of staff members, they are facing a manpower shortage.
“But since leave of all the staff has been cancelled we are managing the functioning of the COVID-19 wards,” he told PTI.
Meanwhile, the Bihar chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has published a list of 40 doctors across the state with their phone numbers for assistance to the needy.
“Our doctors are providing treatment over phone to patients who are primarily in home isolation,” its state president Dr Shahjanand Singh told PTI.
Singh, a surgeon, is himself on the list of doctors helping the needy in the present crisis.
The IMA Bihar chief said these doctors are available over the phone from 10 am to 12 pm and 4pm to 6 pm in the evening.
Bihar is witnessing the second surge of coronavirus like the rest of the country.
As per the health bulletin issued on Wednesday, 12,222 citizens tested positive in the state, while 56 lost their lives.
The state has a total of 3,54,281 cumulative COVID-19 cases while the tally of fatalities is 1,897 since the outbreak of the virus last year.
Bihar has 63,745 active cases of the coronavirus infection at present.
(PTI)