Nurse in Haryana tests positive for Covid-19 after using patient’s mobile phone

Mangalore Today News Network

Haryana, Apr 01, 2020: A 32-year-old nurse has tested positive for the deadly novel coronavirus outbreak after she used the mobile phone of a Covid-19 patient under her care, IndiaToday reported.

 

The nurse, posted at Civil Hospital Panchkula in Haryana, has now been admitted to the same isolation ward where she was handling a Covid-19 female patient.

Four members of her family, besides two owners of the house where she lived in rented accommodation, have also been put into quarantine.

"This was the first case we were handling and it is usually difficult to understand all the protocol in the first case. The infection has transmitted in some way or the other. She might have touched the mobile phone of the Covid-19 patient. Though we have given full protective gear to the staff deployed at the isolation ward," Dr Jasjeet Kaur, Civil Surgeon, Panchkula Civil Hospital said.

As per experts, novel coronavirus can survive on a surface for up to nine hours. Several researches have indicated that mobile phones are chief carriers of germs in their surroundings. During this outbreak, it is advised to sanitise the mobile phone every few hours using sanitising wipes.