The Telangana government-run Osmania General Hospital (OGH) and Gandhi Hospital here have been hit hard by COVID-19 with over 100 doctors, medical students and other staff members testing positive.

The two biggest teaching hospitals in Telangana have seen the spurt in COVID cases among its staff during the last three days. At the OGH, 69 doctors and medicos have tested positive while the number of those infected at Gandhi Hospital is 40. According to OGH superintendent Dr B. Nagender, 35 house surgeons were among those who tested positive for COVID. Twenty undergraduate students, 10 postgraduate students, one associate professor and three assistant professors were also found infected. Most of those who tested positive have mild symptoms and are under seven-day home quarantine.

The superintendent said the COVID cases among the staff has not hit the healthcare services at the hospital. Though the OGH is not treating COVID patients, it is dealing with suspected cases and the staff is believed to have picked up infection from such cases. The OGH is currently seeing 2,500 cases but the authorities expect the numbers to go up as Gandhi Hospital, another key government-run facility in the city, is treating only COVID patients.

According to the Telangana Junior Doctors Association, 40 doctors and medical students at Gandhi Hospital have tested positive for COVID. They include 20 MBBS students, 10 house surgeons, six postgraduate students and four faculty members. Gandhi Hospital is the state nodal centre to treat COVID cases and it receives patients from across Telangana. It has 300 beds for COVID patients. As on Wednesday, Gandhi Hospital was treating 70 cases.

The Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences, the second government-run hospital dealing with COVID cases, had 42 COVID patients. Meanwhile, COVID clusters were also reported at some other hospitals in the state. As many as 45 medical students tested positive at Kakatiya Medical College in Warangal. Five doctors and 15 other employees at a government hospital at Ramakrishnapur in Mancherial district have tested positive.