Shillong: OPD and emergency services at the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences was shut following exposure to coronavirus, officials said on Friday.
The services will remain closed as decontamination and contact tracing within the hospital is underway, they said.
The order to shut the out-patient department (OPD) and emergency services were issued, following the “inadvertent” exposure to coronavirus on Thursday, they said.
According to the hospital authorities, a BSF personnel on July 1 underwent an RT-PCR test for COVID-19, the reports of which came in as negative. Following this, he was admitted to the non-COVID ward in the Orthopedic Department of the hospital on July 4.
The BSF personnel developed a fever on Thursday and when tested again for COVID-19, the report showed he was positive.
The patient had extensive contact footprints in the hospital. Due to this, the hospital needs to be decontaminated and internal contact tracing is to be undertaken, a statement issued by the hospital said.
Indoor patient care services will, however, remain operational, it added
Meanwhile, the frontier headquarters of the BSF in Meghalaya has been declared a containment zone, following a single-day spike of 38 cases there on Thursday.
“The affected area requires aggressive contact tracing, quarantine and testing as well as containment in the the interest of the health of the general public,” East Khasi Hills district deputy commissioner Matsiewdor War said.
Initially, 10 BSF personnel were found to be positive. In the evening, 28 more tested positive, Health Services director Aman War said.
The total number of COVID-19 cases in the state rose to 142, besides two deaths due to the contagion. There are 95 active cases in the state, while 45 people have recovered from the disease. PTI
