Guidelines prepared for 14 days quarantine of healthcare workers, Centre tells SC

The Union government has told the Supreme Court that its guidelines issued on May 15 recommended for 14 days quarantine for healthcare workers in case of high-risk exposure or if they showed symptoms suggestive of COVID-19.

Maintaining that it was taking adequate measures for quarantine of doctors, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said, "novel COVID-19 pandemic poses a very fluid situation".

"Current COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented and there is no time-tested and universally accepted protocols, pertaining to COVID-19 preparedness. There are currently no proven therapeutic or vaccine or rapid point of care diagnostic test, risk assessment and management protocols for Covid-19 and there are major research gaps in many other key areas of COVID-19 patients and hospital management," it said.

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The Centre said the number of COVID-19 cases are constantly increasing. In near future, apart from existing hospitals, a large number of temporary make-shift hospitals will have to be created in order to accommodate patients requiring admission, medical care and treatment.

It maintained that the best protocol for the treatment of COVID-19 has been adopted in guidelines issued on May 15 after a joint monitoring group meeting of WHO, Directorate General of Health Services, ICMR, AIIMS and other officials.

The government's response was filed on a notice issued on May 15 by the top court in a PIL filed by a doctor, Aarushi Jain. She has sought direction for making available quarantine facilities for the doctors outside the hospitals, at hotels, guest house etc, among others.

On Thursday, a bench presided over by Justice Ashok Bhushan allowed Jain to file a rejoinder to the government's response within a week and put the matter for consideration on June 12.

In its reply, the Union government asked the court to reject a contention that the doctors were being diagnosed with COVID-19, even after using adequate PPE kits, saying that the contention lacked any empirical evidence.

The risk profiling of those exposed has been deliberated in detail by the technical body under the Directorate General of Health Services, the joint monitoring group, having members from the WHO.

So far 99.34 PPE kits, certified by designated labs of Ministry of Textile and Defence have been distributed by the central government to the states. Similarly, 123.08 lakh N95 masks have been distributed as on June 1, it said.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said it issued detailed guidelines as 'advisory for managing health care workers in COVID and Non-Covid areas of the hospitals' assessing risk of frontline healthcare workers and recommending them 14 days quarantine period.