New Delhi:
The Delhi government has directed district officials to visit COVID-19 patients under home isolation and ensure that they follow isolation rules, a move that comes amid instances of such people flouting norms in the national capital. In an order, the health department said contact tracing should be paid proper attention and it should be ensured that the contacts traced be subjected to immediate testing and be kept under effective isolation until test result comes.
The national capital has witnessed a spurt in coronavirus cases since October 28, when the daily caseload breached the 5,000-mark for the first time, and recorded the highest single-day spike of 8,593 cases on November 11. “Analysis of cases emerging from entertainment areas, markets, workplaces and metro-like services should be immediately conducted to identify possible clusters and immediate containment measures should be initiated,” stated the order issued last week.
It stated that all cases of symptomatic negatives of rapid antigen tests should be re-tested with a follow-up RT-PCR tests, which are considered the gold standard for COVID-19 testing. “Patients under home isolation should be regularly evaluated and physically visited by health teams to ensure proper adherence to isolation standards,” the order stated said.
There have been some instances where coronavirus patients under home isolation were found not following the norms. According to the order, district authorities should identify more human resource such as civil defence volunteers and municipal sanitary inspectors and deploy them to enforce COVID-appropriate behaviour.
The Delhi government on Friday issued a notification, saying that spitting and consumption of tobacco in public places, violation of COVID-19 quarantine rules, not wearing of masks and not maintaining social distancing would attract a fine of Rs 2,000. The national capital recorded 6,608 fresh COVID-19 cases in a day taking the infection tally on Friday to over 5.17 lakh, while 118 more fatalities during the same period pushed the death toll to 8,159. The positivity rate was 10.59 per cent.
