New Delhi: The surge in Covid-19 cases across India has seen numerous educational institutions turn into hotspots, and the latest appears to be Delhi’s Maulana Azad Medical College.
Over the last week, during a practical exam, at least 200 undergraduate students at MAMC were exposed to a patient who was found to be Covid-positive, ThePrint has learnt.
For six days, 1 to 6 April, students from the ENT department examined a patient who had undergone tracheostomy — a procedure performed on patients who are on ventilator for long periods, which involves creating an opening in the neck to place a tube in their windpipe to allow air to enter the lungs. On 7 April, the patient tested positive for Covid-19.
The patient was admitted to the hospital at least 10 days before the practical exams started. An official at the hospital said the person had been tested for Covid before admission, and that his report was negative at the time.
MAMC Dean Dr Ritu Arora said she is aware of the matter but hasn’t received details about the case, and that she is unable to do anything about it until a formal complaint is filed.
However, after the publication of this report, MAMC officials told ThePrint that a senior resident doctor, who was one of the invigilators during the practical exam, has also tested positive for Covid-19. This doctor’s test report came Friday, and he has proceeded on 14 days’ leave to isolate himself at home.
Also read: 37 doctors test positive for Covid at Delhi’s Ganga Ram hospital, all have ‘mild symptoms’
No PPE kits
Officials and examiners at the MAMC said the patient was used as a case study in the MBBS and PG exams. The students, in groups of 37 each, had to touch the patient to know how the tracheostomy was carried out, and its results. But no PPE kits were used, one of the eight examiners, who wished to remain anonymous, told ThePrint.
The examiner said: “This is part of any medical college exam procedure, and when we got to know that a fellow patient of the one who had undergone tracheostomy tested positive, we immediately ensure the latter was tested too.”
The examiner added that the tracheostomy patient’s test report came up positive around noon Wednesday, following which the authorities were informed on a WhatsApp group of the heads of departments at MAMC.
A second examiner said there’s a possibility that the infection could’ve been passed on to families of other patients too. “Students appear for different exams on different days, so some of these students would have also appeared for the community service exam wherein they interact with families of patients. This means if they’ve contracted the infection, it could have spread further,” this examiner said.
The examiners themselves were not exposed directly to the patient, they said, since they simply conducted the students’ oral exam, but many students would have touched the patient given the nature of the practical exam.
Dean ‘unable to take action’
ThePrint has learnt that many of the students are worried that they might have contracted Covid-19, but so far, no formal complaint has been filed with MAMC Dean Dr Ritu Arora.
Asked if they had raised the matter with the dean, several students ThePrint spoke to said they were hesitant, fearing it could impact the marking procedure for the exams, or result in action against their professors in the ENT department. They said this could happen to anyone.
“Due precautions were taken and this was an unfortunate incident. As a batch, we have decided that we do not want involvement with the situation, and it is a matter for the authorities,” a student representative told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.
Dr Arora, on her part, told ThePrint she was aware that such a case had occurred, but didn’t know all the details.
Showing the WhatsApp message the examiner had mentioned, which was shared on the HODs’ group, the dean said she has “not been able to” initiate any action or take a policy decision.
The message read: “Patient in UG in ENT has tested positive. If necessary (action) be taken.”
Arora, who heads the ophthalmology department, said she didn’t want something like this to happen, and hence, had ensured her department’s exams were conducted virtually.
“But for other departments, someone needs to raise the matter with me… I can’t take these decisions on my own,” she added.
(Edited by Shreyas Sharma)
Also read: This Covid wave in India steeper than the first one, positivity rate over 10%
(This report has been updated with new information about the resident doctor testing positive, and a previous error has been corrected — the affected students are undergraduates, not postgraduates.)