Not Shah model vs Kejriwal model: Sisodia seeks scrapping of order on COVID

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday (June 24) said he has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to request him “with folded hands” to scrap the new system requiring every COVID-19 patient to visit a government-run centre for clinical assessment.

All coronavirus patients in Delhi should not be asked to visit a quarantine centre for evaluation, the Delhi government said, protesting against the Centre’s new order.

Arguing that the new system puts pressure on the government’s facilities with the rising number of cases, Sisodia said there would be chaos in the city in the next few days if it was not scrapped.

He told reporters there are two models in Delhi — Shah’s model, which requires every COVID-19 patient to visit a COVID care centre, and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind 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 said, adding that there should be a system in which people do not face problems.

He said the Union home minister himself is overseeing measures being taken to deal with the COVID-19 situation.

“I request the Union home minister with folded hands to scrap the new system as people have been facing a lot of problems,” Sisodia said at the online media briefing.

Sisodia had written to Lt Governor Anil Baijal on Tuesday (June 23) on the same issue but said the AAP government is yet to get a response.

He said COVID-19 patients are being taken in buses to the care centres for their clinical assessment.

“On the one hand, they (district administration) are conducting mass level testing. On the other, they are taking all people who test positive to a COVID care centre for a clinical assessment,” Sisodia said.

Baijal last week issued an order making it mandatory for every new COVID-19 patient to visit a care centre for clinical assessment to ascertain whether he or she requires hospitalisation or home isolation.

“It is the responsibility of the country’s home minister to intervene in the matter and ask the lieutenant governor to scrap the new system and get back to the previous system of administration officials visiting patients at their homes,” Sisodia said.

Around 4,000 people tested positive on Tuesday. “It is not feasible for all of them to visit COVID care centre for clinical assessment,” the deputy chief minister said.

On Tuesday, Delhi’s COVID-19 count crossed the 66,000-mark with the biggest single-day jump of 3,947 fresh infections, while the death toll rose to 2,301.

(With inputs from agencies)