Office guard of Health Minister Harsh Vardhan’s OSD tests positive for Covid-19

An office guard of Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan’s officer on special duty (OSD) has tested positive for Covid-19. The guard was posted to the Health Minister’s OSD at his office in the teaching block of AIIMS, Delhi.

He tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday. The concerned OSD has been quarantined and his office at AIIMS, Delhi has been shut.

According to sources, the entire wing where the OSD office is located is being sanitized and several staffers, including the OSD, are learned to have been advised self-quarantine. Their samples are also likely to be taken for testing.

A nurse working at Dr. BR Ambedkar Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital of the AIIMS facility has also tested positive for Covid-19, AIIMS officials said.

Two children of the nurse, who was deployed at the daycare facility of the cancer center, have also tested positive for Covid-19, sources said.

Contact tracing was initiated at the facility on Sunday and all those who have come in contact with the security guard and the nurse have been advised self-quarantine. Further contact tracing is on.

Patients who had come for chemotherapy on Saturday at the daycare facility along with healthcare staff at the hospital who had come in contact with her have been advised self-quarantine.

Besides, at least five more staffers, including two from the record section, a lab attendant, and the personal assistant of a faculty at the Cardio-Neuro Centre of AIIMS have also tested positive recently, sources said.

On Wednesday, a male nurse working in the gastroenterology department of AIIMS was found positive for Covid-19, following which around 40 healthcare staff, including doctors and nurses working in the department, were advised self-quarantine.

However, all the staff who had come in contact with the male nurse have tested negative and the department is fully functional, a doctor said.

Last week, two female nurses, one from the cardiology department and one posted in the Trauma Centre of AIIMS had also tested positive for coronavirus. All those who came in contact with these two nurses have been asked to go into self-quarantine.

The Trauma Centre nurse’s child and husband had also tested positive for the infection.