NEIGRIHMS director shuts hospital after BSF jawan with 'extensive footprint' tests COVID-19 positive

Guwahati: After a Border Security Force (BSF) jawan from the Frontier Headquarters Border Security Force (BSF) campus at Umpling tested COVID-19 positive, the authorities of the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) have decided to shut down the hospital.

It has been reported that a BSF personnel was admitted to the Orthopedics ward at NEIGRIHMS hospital, following which he tested positive on July 9. However, when he was tested for Covid-19 earlier, his test had come out negative.

But during his stay at the hospital, he developed fever -- a classic symptom associated with the much-dreaded virus. Following this, a test was carried out again, and he was declared positive this time around.

According to reports, the BSF personnel has had an "extensive contact" footprint in the hospital. Due to this, NEIGRIHMS Director Dr. P Bhattacharryya announced that the hospital needs to be decontaminated, and internal contact tracing is to be undertaken so that the transmission chain of the virus can be snapped. 

Dr. Bhattacharryya stated in a release, "There has been an inadvertent exposure to COVID-19 in NEIGRIHMS on July 9. The patient, a resident of BSF, Umpling had an RT-PCR test done on July 1 which was negative. He was subsequently admitted to the Orthopedics ward (non-COVID ward) on July 4 based on his recent report. He developed a fever during his stay and on July 9 a repeat RT-PCR was done which was positive. The patient has now been shifted to the COVID ward." However, the indoor patient care services will remain open, Bhattacharryya clarified in his release. 

Altogether, 65 BSF personnel have tested positive in Meghalaya to date, sending the number of active cases soaring to 95. Currently, Meghalaya has 142 positive cases which include 95 active cases, 45 recovered, and 2 deaths.

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