6-month-old Phagwara girl tests positive at PGI

Chandigarh, April 22

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A six-month-old girl has tested positive for Covid-19 at the PGI. She was admitted with a medical condition of congenital heart defect for which doctors were planning a corrective surgery.

As many as 54 health care workers at the Advanced Paediatrics Centre — 18 doctors, 15 nursing officers, 13 hospital attendant/sanitation attendant, two physiotherapist and six technicians — have been exposed to the virus. All of them have been quarantined. Four patients, along with their families, have been shifted to other cubicles.

The baby, weighing 3 kg, was diagnosed with acyanotic congenital heart disease with congestive heart failure. She had ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus.

The Phagwara girl had remained at a Ludhiana hospital for 36 days and was subsequently referred to the PGI for a corrective surgery. She was admitted to the Advanced Paediatrics Centre (APC) on April 9 in a critical condition. She was stabilised and required continuous ventilatory support and antimicrobials. She showed gradual improvement in her general condition.

“After a detailed assessment by cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons, she was due to be taken up for an open-heart surgery in the APC. However, a pre-operative test for Covid-19 turned out to be positive on April 21,” reads an official statement of the PGI.

The baby was subsequently shifted to the Covid facility at Nehru Hospital Extension. She continues to receive ventilatory support. — TNS

Her close contacts being screened

All close contacts of the baby are being screened. “We are investigating how the baby got the infection. Given that the incubation period of Covid-19 is generally up to two weeks (though it can vary), it is possible that the baby ‘may have been incubating the infection’ at the time of admission to the PGI. However, as she did not have any suggestive travel history or family contact, she did not fulfil the requirements for pre-emptive screening,” said PGI officials.

14 contacts of Sector 18 woman test negative

A total of 14 family contacts of the Sector 18 Covid positive case were sampled and all of them have tested negative for the virus.