Peerless Hospital on Monday decided to suspend admissions and keep the emergency ward and the outpatient department closed for an indefinite period as some doctors and nurses had tested positive for Covid-19 last week and several others had to be quarantined.

Officials of the hospital said 150 patients admitted there, including 20 Covid-19 cases, would be treated till they are discharged. The hospital, off EM Bypass, has 350 beds.

The management has told the state health department that a sudden shortage of nurses because of the Covid-19 outbreak, the need to fumigate the entire hospital and the setting up of additional isolation beds for coronavirus patients were the reasons for the temporary suspension of admissions and closure of the OPD and the emergency ward.

Sources said it would take at least 10 days for the hospital to resume admissions and OPD services.

Patients in need of dialysis and chemotherapy will be attended to, an official said. Babies will also be delivered.

“In the last one week, 10 healthcare workers — including four doctors and six nurses — tested positive for Covid-19 and they are in isolation. Around 70 other healthcare workers had to be sent to quarantine,” said Sudipta Mitra, the chief executive of Peerless Hospital.

He said the number of nurses at the hospital had come down from around 500 to 20-odd.

“Many nurses have gone home after the Covid-19 outbreak and are reluctant to return. Now, many nurses have been sent to quarantine. Not enough are on duty to run the hospital,” said Mitra.

Also, because of the doctors and nurses getting infected, the entire hospital has to be fumigated. Non-Covid-19 patients will be shifted from the wards that will be fumigated to other wards, said officials.

The hospital is also setting up another isolation ward for treating Covid-19 patients, for which special air-conditioning and exhaust systems are being installed. It will have 25 beds, including seven for intensive therapy.

Now, there are only 11 isolation beds but as many as 20 Covid-19 patients. “Nine patients with coronavirus inspection have been kept in another ward,” another official said.

Several hospitals, private as well as those run by the government, had to partially shut down after healthcare workers got infected by the coronavirus or because of non-Covid-19 patients testing positive for the virus.

The hospitals resumed operations on the affected floors after fumigation.