Accidental death of a COVID suspect forces 73 IGMC Shimla staff to go under quarantine

Tribune News Service
Shimla, May 14 

The accidental death of a suspected coronavirus-positive 19-year-old man from Delhi has caused 73 doctors, nurses and staff at Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) in Shimla to go under quarantine.

The man had died after he sustained severe injuries while unloading a truck on Saturday afternoon and his sample tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday. However, the second report, to confirm the diagnosis, is awaited. He died at 10:30 pm last night.

The truck had reached Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) at about 3 pm, with office furniture and other heavy goods. The man was injured when a heavy kiosk, meant for security personnel, fell on him.

His femur and ribs were crushed and he was rushed to IGMC, where he was operated. When it was discovered that he had a travel history to Delhi his sample was taken to test for COVID, which was found positive in the first sampling.

“Though the person is a COVID suspect, it is not a COVID death as he died after sustaining serious injuries for which surgery was done by Orthopaedic surgeons,” said Dr Janak Raj, Medical Superintendent, IGMC.

However, since four departments—Orthopaedics, Surgery, Anaesthesia and Medicine—were involved in his treatment, 73 staff members, including doctors, nurses, technicians and others have been placed under quarantine.

Meanwhile, The administration has got a block of the Housing Board Colony in Sanjauli vacated after four members of a family, who had returned from Delhi, tested positive.

All the four family members, including an 84-year-old man, have tested positive and have been shifted to institutional quarantine. There is fear in the entire locality another member from the family had been roaming around freely and visited several shops in the area. The administration is the tracing the contacts of the infected.                                          

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.