Bhubaneswar: The surge in COVID-19 cases has forced the authorities of AIIMS Bhubaneswar to close its outpatient department (OPD). As per official sources, no services will be available at AIIMS Bhubaneswar OPD from tomorrow until further orders.
Informing about the development, AIIMS Bhubaneswar Director, B Gitanjali said, “We will be closing our walk-in OPD from tomorrow. We have taken the decision because many of the patients, who are inside our hospital, and some of our staff have tested positive for COVID-19. Not only staff, their close contacts will be under quarantine.”
According to Gitanjali, there are some staff of the hospital who are coming from several areas which have been declared as containment zones and the hospital is now facing a shortage of staff.
When asked how the patients can be able to seek medical assistance, AIIMS Bhubaneswar director informed that they can contact doctors through tele-medicine numbers. Apart from the telemedicine services, the patients can get necessary medical assistance on ‘AIIMS Bhubaneswar Swastya App’ which will be launched tomorrow.
“We will continue to see patients in our casualty and emergency wards. The dialysis, daycare and radio therapy services will continue at the hospital,” she added.
It is pertinent to mention here that the COVID-19 cases in Bhubaneswar reached 557 on Thursday after 32 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours. Of the 32 new cases, 14 are quarantine cases while 18 others are local contact cases.
The number of COVID-19 active cases in Bhubaneswar stands at 247 while 302 persons have recovered from the infection.
(Edited By Bikram Keshari Jena)
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