Delhi L-G revokes order, COVID patients need not visit govt care centres

COVID-19 patients in Delhi will not have to compulsorily visit a quarantine centre for evaluation, the Delhi government said on Thursday (June 25) while withdrawing earlier orders.

Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal took back his order after strong protests from the Aami Aadmi Party (AAP) administration. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had requested the centre to withdraw the order, saying it was “not correct” and compared it to a “15-day detention”.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) held a meeting at 5.30 pm to take a decision on this order and amend rules, according to sources.

Baijal is the chairman of Delhi Disaster Management Authority while Kejriwal is the vice-chairman.

Another source said the authorities would have also considered giving clinical assessment to confirmed COVID-19 cases at antigen centres.

Earlier this week, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Baijal, requesting them to scrap the system.

He had requested the Lieutenant Governor to call an urgent meeting of the DDMA to scrap the system as people were facing a lot of issues.

The AAP has been demanding the implementation of the previous system under which medical teams of district administration will visit the house of infected persons to check on them.

Sisodia on Wednesday had said that there were two models in Delhi — Shah’s model which requires every COVID-19 patient to visit a COVID care centre, and Kejriwal’s model under which medical teams of district administrations go to the homes of infected persons to check on them.

“This is not a fight between Shah’s model and Kejriwal’s model,” he had said, adding that there should be a system in which people do not face problems.

Delhi on Thursday overtook Mumbai as the worst COVID-hit city in India, with more 70,000 cases of the virus infection.