BHOPHAL (UCAN): Archbishop Bernard Moras, the retired of ordinary of Bangalore, and 12 nuns working at St. Vincenza Gerosa Hospital in the Diocese of Dibrugarh, in the state of Assam, India, are among some 700,000 Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) cases reported in India as of July 5. Some 24,000 people tested positive on the day in the worst single-day spike in the country. Close to 20,000 have already died.
India has been struggling to flatten the Covid-19 curve since cases began to increase in mid-March. Since July, the country has been adding more than 20,000 infections each day, with more people testing positive even in villages.
Archbishop Moras tested positive for Covid-19 on July 3 during a routine check-up at the Church-run St. John’s Medical College. His condition is stable, the hospital said.
The 12 nuns—one of whom is doctor—and their helpers tested positive on July 5 as contects of the hospital’s administrator who had tested positive a few days prior.
“They are all now moved to the government medical college in Guwahati,” Assam’s commercial capital, Father Palatty Devassy, secretary to the bishop of Dibrugarh, said on July 6.
“Government officials have now sealed the hospital and started sanitisation work in the hospital, where currently 10 general patients are admitted,” he said.
The nuns also care for some 60 patients with psychiatric complaints in a separate section of the hospital. “It continues to function as other nuns and staff are taking care of them,” Father Devassy explained.
He said the 100-bed hospital “was the lifeline for poor people” in the area and Arunachal Pradesh state.
Bishop Joseph Aind of Dibrugarh, appealed for prayers.
“They (the nuns) were rendering marvellous service for the poor through this hospital, and now it is closed for new patients,” the bishop said.
He expressed hope that the hospital will reopen soon after proper sanitisation.
“Earlier, when other parts of the country reported Covid-19 cases, our region was untouched, but now we too are not spared,” Father Felix Anthony, public relations officer of the North-Eastern Regional Bishops’ Council, lamented.
Assam, the worst-affected northeastern Indian state, recorded its highest single-day spike of 1,202 cases on July 5. The state has recorded 11,001 confirmed cases but 6,740 have already recovered. At least 14 people have died from the pandemic.
