TURA: The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Tura Civil Hospital was on Wednesday shut down after one of its staff tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.
Superintendent of the hospital, Minakshi Sangma, informed that the shutdown has been initiated for sanitising the room and contact tracing of the staff and it would extend till October 26.
According to a source from the ICU, the admission of new patients into the unit was stopped since the COVID-19 positive case was detected and there was a lone patient admitted as of Tuesday. However, the patient also died on Wednesday enabling its complete shutdown.
“Since anyone admitted in the ICU would have already come into contact with us, a designated vehicle would have picked us up from our isolation for their treatment. But since the lone patient died this morning, the ICU is now under complete shutdown,” the source said.
On Tuesday, RT-PCR tests were conducted on all staff working in the ICU which turned out to be negative and further tests would be conducted on Monday. In the meantime, the employees have been directed to stay under quarantine for a mandatory period of five days.
While some of the staff are under quarantine at the SMELC building and MBoSE, others are isolating themselves in their own homes.