mumbai at a time when covid19 cases are coming thick and fast the city could be staring at an emergency of another kindclosed hospitals and outofaction nurseson friday another 19 health workers tested positive from hospitals taking the count of affected medical staff to nearly 100 in mumbailikely to be the highest in india alarmed by the spread of infection among frontline workers private hospitals have been asked to urgently provide safety kits additional remuneration and transportat bhatia hospital under containment since wednesday 14 staffers including 10 nurses two doctors and a physiotherapist tested positive leading to it being sealed two nurses tested positive at dadars shushrusha hospital it has been asked to stop new admissionsquestions over safety protocols in pvt hosps 900 beds unavailable in sobo after sealingsshushrusha hospital in dadar has been directed to discharge all patients within 48 hourswith major hospitals like jaslok wockhardt and bhatia shutting operations and breach candy running a bare minimum of services at least 800900 beds are currently out of circulation in south mumbai alone the development has led to questions about safety protocols followed in the hospitals a civic official said with the right protocols some infections can be avoided kasturba hospital for instance has not reported any infections among doctors and staffers he saida senior management official of a private hospital said a few cases of infections in hospitals were expected since we are actively handling covid19 patients however the initial shortage of ppes and bulk infections in some hospitals has made the situation messytwo more nurses have tested positive in breach candy which has been running emergency and icu services with a skeletal staff after 180 of their nurses were placed under quarantine a few days ago among the 100 infected healthcare workers over 60 are nurses 10 are doctors while the remaining are technicians working in cardiac or pathology labs and cleanersthe 250bed saifee hospital which was among the first to face the covid19 scare and closure of ots and diagnostic units now will only be admitting coronavirus patients in addition a dozen other midlevel and small nursing homes across the city have shut operations after patients accidentally tested positive and their staffers had to be quarantined the khar hinduja hospital too is running minimal services after several of their staffers were placed under quarantine those nursing home not hit by the infection are also running to half their strength as many staffers havent been able to commutecommenting on the situation bmc commissioner praveen pardeshi said private hospitals are much needed in these times some patients would prefer to go to private hospitals and many of them are doing a good job in handling covid19 patients he said adding that in case a hospital gets infected there are protocols of testing those and disinfecting the premises completely after this is done the hospital can again start functioning he saidmumbais situation is intriguing when compared with several cities and even states in delhi which has reported nearly 800 positive