CORONAVIRUS Isolate suspected patients, don’t refer them to us: PGIMER to states

The Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, has asked neighbouring states to keep suspected patients of coronavirus in isolation and refrain from referring them to the institute.

On Monday morning, a 28-year-old man from Mohali, who had visited China from January 16 to January 22, was admitted to PGIMER with symptoms like coronavirus.

PGIMER director Dr Jagat Ram said letters have been written to the chief secretaries of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh asking them to follow the government of India guidelines in case of coronavirus is suspected.

“We have asked them that there is no need to panic in case they suspect somebody has exposure to the virus. They should immediately put such patients in isolation rather than referring them to other institutes like PGIMER,” he said.

He added, “We have also told them to send blood and other samples of such patients to National Institute of Virology in Pune for further investigation.”

He added that the government of India guidelines call for isolation of such patients as referring them to other institutes can increase infection exposure.

PGIMER has a daily footfall of around 10,000 patients, a majority of which comes from Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.