On Friday, LG Anil Baijal ordered a 5 day institutional-quarantine to be made compulsory for every COVID-19 patient placed under home-quarantine in Delhi. He also ordered discontinuation of the services of a private agency that was making telephonic contact with home-quarantined persons for the guidance.

Almost four district magistrates said that there has been no clarity on whether the order on institutional-quarantine covers present home-quarantined patients. They expected that a proper clarity might come on Saturday as a high-level meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, is to be chaired by the LG.

Baijal in his order said that institutional-quarantine of 5 days in each COVID-19 case who is placed under home-quarantine is mandatory. Later, they will be directed for home-isolation, except in cases where they require further hospitalization.

The Delhi government is not happy with this “arbitrary” decision and has demanded to be reconsidered by the Centre. A senior official also said that the decision will scare away people from getting tested.

As per the government, around 8,500 COVID-19 patients are in home isolation in Delhi, who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. Baijal said in his order that mandatory physical verification of each case placed under home quarantine is necessary to be carried out by the surveillance teams of district surveillance officers under supervision of the district magistrate. This will limit the spread of COVID-19 cases.

In a reaction statement, the Delhi government said that the home-isolation programme has been the most successful initiatives against coronavirus. The Delhi government has treated thousands of mild and asymptomatic COVID-19 cases at home through daily monitoring and counselling. These home-isolation protocol is carried out strictly as per ICMR guidelines and also those of the Centre.

Home-isolation has encouraged many people with minor symptoms to come forward and test as they knew that they won’t be taken to a hospital or quarantine centre by force.

The Delhi government said that the order of the central government to stop home isolation will discourage people from testing and can further spread coronavirus as asymptomatic and mild symptom patients won’t go for testing and would not want to be quarantined.

The total manpower of Delhi government is already stretched and now, large quarantine centres would be required to make house to thousands of asymptomatic people. Thousands of patients are undergoing treatment at home. After putting this order into effect, they would immediately require thousands of beds in quarantine centres.

Source: ET Healthworld