LG's guidelines on home isolation will 'seriously harm' Delhi: City govt

The Delhi government on Friday said the new guidelines on home isolation of COVID-19 patients issued by the Lt Governor was an "arbitrary decision" and will "seriously harm" the national capital.

In a statement, it also pointed out that Delhi already has "serious shortage" of doctors and nurses to provide care for COVID-19 patients and asked where the extra manpower would come from.

"We have been completely supportive of the Central government in our collective fight against coronavirus, but this arbitrary decision will seriously harm Delhi," it said.

The Delhi government urged that the decision should be reconsidered.

Five-day institutional-quarantine has been made mandatory for every COVID-19 patient who is under home-quarantine in Delhi, Lt Governor Anil Baijal ordered on Friday.

This will also discourage many people from getting tested and "spread corona" further as asymptomatic patients or those with mild symptoms will resist testing, the statement said.

"Entire manpower of Delhi government is already stretched. Large quarantine centres would need to be made to house thousands of asymptomatic people," it said.

According to authorities, the total number of COVID-19 positive patients under home isolation in the city till June 17 stood at 25,020.

A total of 3,34,376 tests have been conducted in Delhi till Friday, they said.

The statement said the city government's home isolation programme has been "one of the most successful initiatives" in the battle against COVID-19.

"We have treated thousands of mild and asymptomatic cases at home so far through daily monitoring and counselling," it said.

Home isolation has encouraged a lot of people with minor symptoms to come out and get tested as they knew that they would not be taken to a hospital or quarantine centre forcibly, it said.

The Delhi government also asked if ICMR guidelines are still applicable to the rest of India, then why are there "different parameters for Delhi".

Further, Delhi has already seen escalating number of cases and preparations have to be done for patients from the entire region. In addition to 80,000 beds being planned for serious patients in July, thousands of quarantine rooms will have to be added, the statement said.

"Thousands of patients are being treated at home at the moment. After this order, we would immediately need thousands of beds in quarantine centres," it added.