Two days after the outpatient services were suspended in the state-run Gandhi Hospital, Health Minister Eatala Rajender on Thursday asked department officials to convert it into a full-fledged hospital, dedicated to treating only coronavirus patients. All departments in Gandhi Hospital will be shifted to Osmania General Hospital (OGH) by the end of March, the minister instructed during a review meeting.

“Elective surgeries have already stopped at Gandhi and patients are being referred to OGH. Shifting of other departments from Gandhi to OGH should be completed by March-end. King Koti hospital should be kept ready to treat coronavirus patients,” Eatala said, according to The Times of India.  

The step has been taken to prepare for the worst case scenario. Telangana is presently witnessing local transmission, stage two of COVID-19 transmission.

Following the meeting, Director of Medical Education Dr K Ramesh Reddy directed superintendents of the hospitals to shift the remaining departments from Gandhi Hospital as well, The Hindu reported.

On Thursday, four new cases were recorded and all of them had no travel history.

Patient no 42, a resident of Quthbullapur, had travelled in the AP Sampark Kranti express, the same train in which Indonesian nationals who tested positive for coronavirus had travelled. Patient 43 and 44 are a doctor couple from Domalguda in Hyderabad, while patient 45 was a 45-year-old male, resident of Bhuddhanagar, Secunderabad with a travel history to Delhi. 

“The doctor couple were both working in the same private hospital. They have no travel history. They have no contact history as far as we know, but it is not surprising, as frontline health workers will be the first to get affected,” G Srinivas Rao, Director of Public Health Telangana had told TNM.

In the state, at least six cases of local transmission have been recorded. However, the Telangana government maintains that there is no evidence of community transmission and insists that all the confirmed cases have a history of travel or contact with suspected or confirmed cases.