Mandatory quarantine for COVID patients above 60 in Delhi withdrawn

The Additional District Magistrate of Delhi’s South West district has withdrawn an order making quarantine in COVID care facilities mandatory for infected people over 60. The order, issued on September 21, said people with co-morbidities had to admit themselves to coronavirus care facilities.

The home isolation guidelines by Delhi government, similar to the Central government guidelines, allow those who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms to isolate at home, provided there is enough space for them to isolate themselves from other members of the family.

No official reason has been given for the order’s withdrawal, although sources said it was withdrawn because it was not in accordance with protocols issued by both the Delhi government and the Indian Council for Medical Research, the Centre’s nodal body in this crisis.

The national capital, which was, until recently, the second worst affected by the pandemic, has recorded over 2.7 lakh cases. Of these 5,235 are virus-linked deaths and 29,228 are active cases.

Related news: COVID cases surge past 60 lakh, over 82K new cases, 1,039 fatalities

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has described home isolation, along with aggressive testing, as the “most important strategy” for fighting COVID-19. In June, when the number of cases had last surged, the government had fought the Lieutenant Governor’s decision of mandatory institutional quarantine for all COVID-19 patients.

According to data shared by the government, over 101,000 patients have recovered in home isolation in the city and only 40 people died of the infection in home isolation till September 17.

Last week, the government had directed all district commissioners to mandatorily shift any Covid-19 patient in home isolation to institutional isolation if they were found to be violating guidelines.

Southwest Delhi’s order had come just a day before this meeting. As per government data, as on September 17, 7,847 patients had recovered in the district in home isolation, there were 1,545 active cases, 110 people were shifted to hospitals and none of the patients had died in home isolation.