COVID: CM Kejriwal opposes L-G’s 5-day mandatory institutional quarantine order in Delhi

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has taken strong objection to Delhi Lieutenant General (LG) Anil Baijal's decision of five-day compulsory institutional quarantine for COVID-19 patients in Delhi, at the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) meeting, held on Saturday.

Baijal had on Friday issued an order stating that every COVID-19 positive person in the national capital will have to stay in 5-day institutional quarantine.

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"Every corona positive person will have to stay in the quarantine centre for 5 days. Only then a person will be sent to home isolation. But if there are symptoms then they will be sent to the quarantine centre or hospital, accordingly," the order issued by LG read.

"Under the supervision of the District Magistrate, the team of District Surveillance Officers will do physical verification of everyone in home isolation," it added.

In the order, Anil Baijal said it was observed that home isolation without physical monitoring of the COVID-19 patient may be one of the reasons for the spike in the spread of coronavirus infection in Delhi. To limit the spread of COVID-19 in the national capital, it was felt that mandatory physical verification of each case under home isolation needs to be carried out by the district surveillance officers.

The chief minister said that there is a shortage of health care workers in Delhi and LG's order will over-burden the health care system in Delhi as it won't be possible to arrange for nurses and doctors for thousands of patients at quarantine centres. He also argued that the order will scare the asymptomatic and people with mild symptoms of getting themselves tested which might lead to further spread of the disease.

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Kejriwal also questioned as to the protocol of home quarantine for asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic has been followed by ICMR across the country then why are different rules implemented in Delhi. Due to opposing opinions, there was no consensus on the issues, and hence the meeting has been rescheduled for 5 pm today.

Delhi has reported 53,116 COVID-19 cases as on Saturday, of which 27,512 are active, 23,569 have been cured and discharged whereas 2,035 have succumbed to the virus, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

(With ANI inputs)