Three tested positive at Dongri children’s home, two discharged

Mumbai: Two minors (a boy and a girl) and nursing staff at the Dongri children’s home in Umarkhadi were tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this month. While two patients including the staffer have already recovered and discharged this week, a 15-year-old girl is still undergoing treatment at St George’s Hospital.

The first case of Covid-19 at the centre was detected on May 6 after a 17-year-old boy apprehended by the police in a sexual assault case was tested positive for the infection.

According to the official of BMC's B ward office, the teenaged boy had first developed a fever, cold and cough following which his swab tests were collected. “He was kept in a separate room at the centre until the reports arrived two days later. Once confirmed that he was positive for Covid-19, he was immediately shifted to a government hospital,” the BMC official said.

After a week of the first victim being detected another case came to light. This time it was a 37-year-old nursing staff, on duty for conducting regular checks across the centre tested positive.

"As soon as the second case of the staff nurse came to light, contact tracing was intensified and all those who had come in contact with her were screened. As many as eight children at the centre were tested as her close contacts among them only the 15-year-old girl tested positive for the infection. She was shifted to the St. George's hospital and is currently undergoing treatment there," the official said.

The centre has been disinfected and fumigation process was carried out too as precautionary measures, BMC official said.

The institute currently has 136 children. It also has 25 staffers, who live on its premises, and 15 others who visit the centre as per duty.