Hyderabad: Risking doctors of Niloufer

Hyderabad: Around 25 doctors, including junior doctors and other health staff, of the Niloufer Hospital here have gone under home quarantine after a 3-year-old boy tested Covid-19 positive on Sunday.

With some of doctors complaining of mild symptoms like cold and cough, swab samples of nearly 10 of them were collected and sent for testing. The old boy with maligna)ncy and with a low immunity levels was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday and chest X-ray and other tests showed he was suffering from Pneumonia. His swab sample was taken and sent for testing to Gandhi Hospital and it was confirmed positive on Sunday.

He was treated in a separate room at the hospital. However, some of the junior doctors and other staff volunteered to go on home quarantine from Monday and they were given permission. While 10 of them underwent sample tests, others were found to be asymptomatic. Shocked by these developments, the Telangana Junior Doctors Association has decided to boycott duties from March 31 unless they were provided with PPEs and N-95 masks as per the guidelines.

They said that they will hold silent protest by coming to respective departments in hospitals, but will not be attending to the duties. The doctors' association rued that they were working in great risk with lack of protective equipment which is not good for them or for their family members and also scores of patients they are attending to every day.

This decision is in the interest of common public itself because one exposed doctor can act as carrier & spread to hundreds of patient as happened in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, they said.