Medical services at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru were temporarily affected on Saturday after two patients tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
The two patients, aged 34 and 30 respectively, are women and have been admitted to the Victoria Hospital. While one of the patients was brought into the psychiatry emergency ward and was due for admission, the other patient was due for neurological surgery.
The patient in the psychiatry ward was initially placed in the holding area awaiting admission where she was kept in close proximity with four other patients. Now, those four patients have been shifted to institutional quarantine. 20 other patients, whom they met, have also been shifted to some other block as a precaution.
Another patient was a neurosurgery patient who was scheduled to undergo elective surgery for meningioma and was kept in a preoperative holding ward. Seven other patients in the ward who were present at the spot are being monitored.
A 32-year-old female staff member who also tested positive on the same day was also sent to Victoria Hospital. She was working in a different psychiatry ward and had no connection with the two patients. 10 patients and 10 other medical staff who came in contact with her have been kept in observation.
With this, a total of three patients and 10 staff in the hospital has now tested positive in NIMHANS.
After a brief disruption on Saturday night, services at the Emergency and Psychiatric ICU (intensive care unit) were started in the adjacent block.
Dr Sashidhar, Resident Medical Officer of NIMHANS, said, “The ICU is not a medical ICU in that sense. It's a high intensive psychiatry observation ward. Somebody who is suicidal or not taking care of self- such patients will be housed. The advantage of NIMHANS is that it has multiple blocks, geographically separated. Hence, services can be immediately relocated without hindering any service.”