As cases shoot up, more health workers fall prey

The influx of NoRKs poses a challenge to State’s health-care system

As the number of COVID-19 patients goes up in what is considered the third phase of the disease in the State, the number of health workers getting affected is also on the rise.

So far, 27 health workers have been affected, 14 in the second phase from March 9 to May 6 and 13 in the third phase from May 7, with expatriates and Non-Resident Keralites (NoRKs) from other States reaching the State with the easing of lockdown restrictions.

“The influx in the third phase has been too large that it challenged our system at the check-posts,” says Joseph Chacko, president of the Kerala Government Medical Officers Association. Those coming from hotspots are most likely to carry the disease and the front-line health workers exposed to the large numbers are at risk, he adds.

Besides, it is likely that in spite of the personal protection equipment (PPE), the workers can get exposed to the virus as the quality of all PPE may not be the same. The kits are now being made in large numbers to meet the demand and it is likely that Indian Council of Medical Research recommendations may not have been followed. These are only assumptions as health-care professionals here are not lax about following the norms, he says.

The number of cases in the State stood at 502 in three months before the influx of people started.

The next 461 plus cases came up in just over two weeks.

The number of health-care workers exposed to infected persons is more in this phase, says A. Fathahudeen, Vice Principal, Government Medical College, Ernakulam, and nodal officer for COVID-19 in the hospital.

The duration of contact with the patient and the frequency of contact are likely to expose health-care workers to the highly contagious virus as they have to deal with patients in close proximity. After they take a week off, they are exposed again a second time and a third time to patients carrying viral load. In spite of the PPE kits there could be rare instances when someone can get infected, says Dr. Fathahudeen.

“This only shows that we should continuously re-evaluate our PPE protocols as social human behaviour is such that one cannot always be on the toes,” he says.