Will Not Admit New Cases Or Visitors Till Mid-April 

On 1st April, 2020, the B D Petit Parsee General Hospital issued a statement that it was in Lockdown mode and would not be admitting any new cases or permitting any visitors to enter the hospital, till 15th April, 2020. Services were suspended after a patient, admitted for another ailment, tested positive for Covid-19 or the novel Coronavirus. As per media sources, the patient has been shifted to Kasturba Hospital for treatment.

The statement further stated, “The patients’ attendants currently staying with them (at the hospital) in the paying wards will have to remain in the hospital for next two weeks, or go home today and stay at home (self-quarantine), till the above date. This is as per the Govt. / BMC rules, taken for the safety of the Community and the patients currently being looked after by the dedicated staff of PGH.” 

The lockdown implemented by PGH comes in the wake of the city’s major hospitals like Breach Candy, Jaslok and Saifee, also stopping their outpatient departments and new admissions, over Covid-19 cases, and are only running their emergency sections, affecting quality healthcare. 

As per news reports, at Jaslok, at least six staffers have tested positive and are undergoing treatment, after a patient admitted for bladder surgery and kidney dysfunction, had tested positive for Covid-19, after spending 11-12 days in the hospital. An expert team visited Saifee Hospital, under partial lockdown after a cardiac surgeon tested positive, as did his 85-year-old father, who had gone to the hospital a day before he succumbed to the infection. At Breach Candy Hospital, the test results of all technicians came positive in the first test; second test results are awaited.

Additional Municipal Commissioner, Suresh Kakani, leading the battle against Covid-19, said the BMC team would decide when a hospital can safely reopen, based on the testing of air and water samples collected there, which could prove if the infection was still lurking. He assured, unlike humans, who need to stay quarantined for 14 days, hospitals wouldn’t be shut for as long. 

Across Mumbai, at least five nursing homes have stopped taking new patients, after unknowingly admitting coronavirus positive cases.