Children to be quarantined before being sent to CCIs
New Delhi: New cases of Children in Need of Care and Protection (CNCP) must now be quarantined or isolated before being sent to Child Care Institutions (CCIs), in light of the Coronavirus crisis. The Delhi Government has designated quarantine centres and isolation wards for these children.
According to the government officials, the process has been started and children have arrived in the quarantine facility.
According to the standard operating procedure (SOP) for dealing with new admissions and suspected cases in times of COVID-19 with respect to
children and women, guidelines related to precautions in CCIs and WIs in Delhi have already been issued by Department of WCD (Delhi government).
"In order to scale up the preparedness for handling new cases of admissions so that all such new admissions do not get mixed up with existing residents raising the risk of
possible infection and in case of finding out any suspected case in the existing residents, there is a system of segregation for keeping the suspected
case of infection under watch and medical attention," the SOP reads.
According to the SOP, five quarantine centres in different parts of Delhi were designated for CNCP, children in conflict with law and women residents.
"Each of these centres will have three security staff, nurse, visiting doctor. Two centres are for boys, girls and one for women," the SOP revealed. Three isolation centres for symptomatic or suspected cases referred by doctors were also designated by the government.
The competent authority for children under CNCP category will be the concerned Child Welfare Committee(CWC); whereas the competent authority for children in conflict with law will be the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) concerned.
"Whenever the case of a new child or a symptomatic child is found in any CCI in a district, the said child will be sent for quarantine/isolation for number of days as advised by the doctor.
The concerned CWC/JJB being the competent authority, shall issue a comprehensive order thereby sending the child to designated institutions and return of the child to the institution in that concerned district upon completion of quarantine," reads the SOP.
The doctor's report will be sufficient for declaring the cases as COVID-19 suspect for quarantine/isolation. A fitness certificate will be required to be issued by the doctor before shifting the child back to any institution.
"The competent authority before passing an order for quarantine/isolation shall brief the concerned child about the pandemic, precautions and relevance of isolation so that suspected resident/new arrival does not get stressed about their isolation/quarantine," the SOP adds.
The competent authority will monitor and supervise residents placed in quarantine/isolation wards with the support of reporting officer, who shall, if required, monitor cases via video conferencing.
