New Delhi, Apr 11 (IANS): With 24 persons testing coronavirus positive on its premises, the Delhi State Cancer Institute has been closed to new patients and is being sanitised, an official said on Saturday.

Those found infected included three doctors, 18 nurses, and three patients.

"After the death of one patient, the remaining two have been admitted in the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital. The Cancer Institute has stopped admitting new patients, as of now," the hospital management official said.

The 70 persons deployed at the institute have since been quarantined.

Meanwhile, the institute staff attributed corona positive cases to different sources. Some said it was due to the central air-conditioning, though nothing official has been said on the issue so far.

In the past two days, three patients were found corona positive, including a Ferozabad resident who was getting treated for stomach cancer. He has since died.

Earlier, after a Cancer Institute doctor was found corona positive, it was closed and sanitised.

The doctor had come in contact with 19 staff members, who too were tested. Two nursing staff were then found corona positive.