Fifty National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel deployed for relief efforts during Cyclone Amphan in West Bengal have tested positive for COVID-19, reportedly officials said. They also said that over 170 NDRF members have tested for coronavirus after they returned to their base in Odisha's Cuttack from the cyclone-hit West Bengal.
According to agency reports, the personnel belongs to the NDRF's Mundali battalion based at Cuttack. These people were tested on the idea of contact tracing after one among them deployed in West Bengal was found infected a couple of days ago.
DG NDRF, Satya Narayan Pradhan tweeted, "In view of inquires it's informed that on testing of NDRF personnel in Odisha after return from Cyclone Amphan duties 50 were found positive of nearly 190 personnel tested for COVID19. Thus far these officials are asymptomatic and under observation."
According to another senior federal contingency officer quoted by PTI, more tests are being done. All the team members were quarantined at the NDRF campus whereas those found positive for Coronavirus were sent to hospital isolation facilities.
NDRF had deployed 19 teams in West Bengal for relief and rescue efforts during the super cyclone that made landfall on May 20. Each team comprises about 45 personnel. Over 5 lakh people were evacuated within the State whereas 1,58,640 people were evacuated in Odisha.
At the same time, amid the rising COVID-19 cases, four medical practitioners have thus far tested positive for the deadly virus in Odisha.
Two senior doctors of Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) on COVID-19 duty are the newest to have got the infection. An RGH official told a State media that the infected doctors, who hold senior administrative posts, were asymptomatic. They possibly contracted the virus from some undiagnosed infected person while on duty.
On Sunday, the administration collected swab samples of over 100 RGH employees, including doctors. While the results of 80 samples were negative, reports of the remainder 20 are awaited.
A pediatrician posted at City Hospital in Cuttack was the primary doctor within the State to check positive for COVID-19 on May 27. The doctor had complained of fever and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19.
Following this, contact tracing was administered at CDA Sector, City Hospital, and two private nursing homes, one in Cuttack and one in Kendrapada, where he had a clinic. Swab tests of these who came in touch with the doctor were also conducted.
On June 5, a junior doctor of AIIMS-Bhubaneswar tested positive for the virus. The very next day, a doctor performing at a COVID hospital in Angul district was also found infected.
Health workers are at the battlefront of the COVID-19 outbreak response and exposed to hazards that put them in danger of infection.
On May 31, an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA), an Anganwadi worker, sanitary staff (sweeper), and a few volunteers engaged at the TMCs at Marsaghai highschool and Penthapal cyclone center had also tested positive for COVID-19.
Following the detection of those cases, two wards with 300 households in Marsaghai and Dadhi Sahi in Penthapal with 80 households were declared as containment zones.