Northern Ireland’s busiest hospital is now under observation because of the possibilities of covid cluster development.
The problem came to notice as some of the hospital nurses attended a birthday party at a restaurant. According to the sources, the party took place in the past fort night
The authorities and the health workers are trying their level best to find out the area of spread and to track down the primary contacts of the infected ones.
It has been found that some of the hospital staffs, who tested positive for Covid-19 were present at the Co Armagh celebration.
Contact tracing is done in a serious way after finding that three A&E staffs contracted the virus and a separate cluster was developed in a hematology ward. This resulted in 10 confirmed cases among patients.
A spokesperson for the Southern health trust said that the staffs are strictly following the covid regulations both within the hospital and also outside.
He said that further details regarding the possible links for transmissions can only be said after the completion of the ongoing investigation and the trust is working closely with the Public Health Agency to manage the situation.
“The safety of patients, staff and wider contacts remains our priority and it is vital that our staff help stop coronavirus spreading by following all the rules and regulations at all times – whilst at work and outside of work.”
At the same time some of the frontline nurses has raised concerns regarding the social distancing in the hospital. Some are forced to have lunch with colleagues within a car, as the hospital canteens are shutdown.
In contradiction to this, the trust’s spokesperson said that the canteens have recently opened with certain changes.
Further updates regarding the infection spread were unavailable. Around 150 members of the hospital’s emergency department staffs have done swab testing for covid and luckily all were negative. Whereas 21 staffs from the A&E were send to home for self-observation and isolation.
A staff who tested covid positive covered a shift in an operation theater and that led to the quarantine of seven other theater staffs.
Due to staff shortages, an orthopedic surgery list has been cancelled tomorrow to provide cover.