Noida: With no letup in the number of patients seeking admission and faced with an acute manpower shortage, a designated state-run Covid hospital in Noida has decided to cap the recovery period for health workers at 10 days. The director of Child PGI (Super Specialty Paediatric Hospital & Post Graduate Training Institute) issued guidelines to staff members and workers on Tuesday that said health workers and paramedics who test positive for Covid-19 through RT-PCR will be considered non-infectious after 10 days.

The guidelines said regular, contractual as well as contingent workers who are deputed for Covid duties in the hospital and contract the infection will be given a maximum of 10 days to report back to work. Director DK Gupta’s order states that all asymptomatic individuals will be given three days and those with symptoms 10 days to rejoin duties. “No retesting is required after 10 days of symptoms. Such cases may test PCR positive but are non-infectious and should report back to duty without delay,” states the order.

Moreover, a new policy for testing of health workers and staff members was framed. While no testing will be done for those who are asymptomatic, those with symptoms cannot send samples directly to a laboratory but route them through the respective heads of department.

“By the tenth day, the virus is usually inactive,” Gupta told TOI. “Or we take it as a dead virus. If you test at that time, it may show a positive result on RT-PCR but it is not able to cause damage to others, provided the person does not have clinical symptoms. If there are symptoms, a person is to be taken as infected and the test may or may not be positive. I have gone by what KGMU in Lucknow has done and the circular is based on their order. A clarification will be circulated among employees to specify that people who have difficulty in breathing, pain in chest or high fever will not be called for duties till they recover completely,” he added.

The hospital is equipped with 60 oxygen beds out of which 10 are in the intensive care unit. Besides treating Covid patients, it is also admitting other patients and is known for its expertise in dealing with complicated paediatric cases. At present, close to 440 staff members are deployed in the facility out of which about 45 are MBBS graduates.

The guidelines have not gone down well with doctors and paramedical staffers. “Health workers are already stretched. There is no end to this battle in sight for now. If we cannot be given off or holiday during this period, at least we should be given time to recuperate from Covid completely. We have not seen any guidelines that say those testing positive through RT-PCR shall be assumed non-infectious after a certain number of days,” said a nurse.

District magistrate Suhas LY told TOI, “Health workers have to be accorded the highest respect. I will check with health department officials if such a directive has been issued due to shortage of manpower. Since the Union government has made provisions to draft in final-year MBBS students and nursing staff for Covid-19 duties, we shall be able to take some steps to bring down the burden on existing manpower.”

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