BHUBANESWAR: With COVID-19 cases reporting a jump in the State Capital, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Sunday decided to allow home quarantine of patients, who are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, in non-slum areas.
Issuing a revised Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for contact tracing and follow up action, the BMC stated that if there is a request for home isolation from any asymptomatic case in non-slum area, it would be permitted. For this, nodal officer for home quarantine will have to get the house facility checked for ‘suitability and adequateness of home isolation’.
The SOP issued by Municipal Commissioner Prem Chandra Chaudhary stated that the nodal officer for home isolation will also have to obtain necessary documents and undertakings from patients for allowing quarantine for which a separate SOP has been prepared. The civic body will also take help of the Rapid Response Teams (RTTs) to monitor such home isolation.
The move comes in the wake of rapid rise in cases in the State Capital which is expected to put pressure on Covid hospitals if the current pattern continues. Currently, the tally stands at 702 with active cases numbering 368, more than half of the total confirmed cases. This apart, the civic body has decided to involve RRTs in contact tracing of patients to check spread of coronavirus effectively in the city. Four team leaders engaged by BMC for contact tracing will have RRTs headed by the Ayush doctors.
The contact tracing teams will work in two shifts from 10 am to 5.30 pm and 5 pm till the end of day’s work. For all cases where source of infection of positive cases remain unknown, the matter will be directly taken up by the BMC Commissioner for necessary action. Nodal officer of contact tracing Manas Ranjan Samal has been asked to ensure proper coordination with Capital Hospital as well as other Covid hospitals in the city for shifting of positive cases.
BMC officials said special focus will be given to contact tracing in slum areas and as soon as a positive case is detected, a well mark area in and around the house within the slum will be selected for quarantine and slum dwellers of the marked area will be tested for Covid-19 within a week.