A mission hospital in Assam’s Dibrugarh town was sealed after 12 Catholic nuns, including a doctor, was tested Covid-19 positive. The nuns and a domestic support working in the St Vincenza Gerosa (VG) Hospital were on July 4 found to be infected with the coronavirus.

The first to test positive was the superior of the VG hospital community, who had traveled to Guwahati, Assam’s commercial capital, some 445 km southwest of Dibrugarh. On July 31, she showed mild symptoms of fever and a bad stomach. This led to the testing of all residents of the community.
Although four others have tested negative, the local administration has declared the entire hospital area a contaminated zone.

Samples of all other inmates, staff, primary contacts and regular visitors are being collected and sent for testing at Regional Medical Research Centre, Dibrugarh.

Four of the nuns are senior citizens – Sisters Antonia Mampilly, 85, Eileen Almeida, 72, Michael Serrao, 82, and Martha Kochuparambil, 83.

Expressing shock over the developments, Bishop Joseph Aind of Dibrugarh said, “It is sad that the lifeline hospital of people in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh has now been sealed. My heart goes out to all the Sisters and the inmates of VG Hospital and I invite everyone to pray for their quick recovery from the disease and for the reopening of the hospital.”

In a note to the people in his diocese, Bishop George Pallipparambil of Miao in Arunachal Pradesh has asked them to pray for the sisters and advised everyone to take extreme care to avoid the virus and comply with the lockdown restrictions.