Institutional quarantine for all Covid patients; Delhi govt asks L-G to reconsider
New Delhi: In a sudden decision that jolted some 10,500 COVID-19 patients in Delhi under home isolation and the Capital's already stretched healthcare infrastructure, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal invoked his powers as the ex-officio Chairperson of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority to scrap provisions for home quarantine of asymptomatic and very mild Coronavirus cases, thereby ordering that a mandatory 5-day institutional quarantine should be imposed on anyone who tests positive for the contagious disease. While the order came on the heels of a suggestion made by the Ministry of Home Affairs in their review meeting, the LG said, in his order, that a possible reason for the continuing surge in cases could be because home isolation cases are not being physically monitored by surveillance officers. LG Baijal noted that physical verification of all COVID-19 patients under home isolation would be required to efficiently limit the spread of the virus.
The order said, "5 days of institutional quarantine of each case under home quarantine is to be made mandatory and thereafter will be sent for home isolation except in cases where symptoms require further hospitalisation."
The DDMA Chairperson's order specifically stated that the programme for district surveillance officers to monitor home isolation patients telephonically would be discontinued with immediate effect, adding that physical verification of each case under home isolation is to be carried out by district surveillance officers under the supervision of their respective DMs mandatorily.
While the order does not specifically mention whether this would include patients who are currently under home isolation, at least four district magistrates have said that there is no clarity on the matter yet and some of it will hopefully be offered at the next DDMA meeting scheduled for Saturday (June 20). As of Friday night, there are 10,490 COVID-19 patients who are under home isolation.
The Delhi government also issued a strong statement, calling the move arbitrary and saying it will "seriously harm Delhi" and that it should be reconsidered. The Delhi government said that the Capital's healthcare infrastructure was already stretched and implementing this decision would require large quarantine centres to be built. It questioned why the Centre was comfortable asking other states to "strictly ensure home isolation guidelines" while asking Delhi to scrap the programme.
The Delhi government said its home isolation programme follows strict ICMR protocols and has been "one of the most successful initiatives in the battle against Corona".
"We have been completely supportive of the Central Govt in our collective fight against Corona, but this arbitrary decision will seriously harm Delhi. They should reconsider this decision," the Delhi government said.
