BENGALURU: As the government is laying emphasis on home isolation and reducing the number of patients at Covid Care Centres, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and health department are trying to get the approval of the government to start supplying medicines to patients at home. BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad told The New Indian Express that they are waiting for a policy decision to start the process. “Apart from the standard set of medicines, additional drugs as prescribed by doctors will also be supplied to patients at home,” he said. This is imperative as most patients under home isolation are forced to source medicines from drug stores.
Prasad said it is important to build confidence among people in home isolation, give them the best treatment and ensure that they are well taken care of. “Since the government is stressing that patients stay at home and get treated, they should be constantly monitored and given timely medical attention. Around 45-50% of Covid patients are on home isolation, and they should be monitored to stop them from spreading the virus,” he added.
As life is getting back to normal, citizens are moving around without masks and not maintaining social distancing. To ensure that the norms are followed, the BBMP and health department are taking the opinion of legal experts to file criminal cases against violators. Now, a person is let off only with a penalty.
“The violators should be sent to court to learn a lesson, and for that, Marshals need more powers. We are trying to find relevant sections under the Criminal Procedure Code to file cases against violators,” he said.
Cases should be booked and they should be sent to jail t least for 10-15 days, as they are risking not just their health, but also of those around them, health department officials said.The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike is talking to the police department to help BBMP Marshals in booking stringent criminal cases against those not wearing masks across the city. Over the last 15 days, most of the Marshals were deployed back to their original duty of solid waste management, but now with a lot of people violating Covid-19 norms, the Marshals are back in action and have been asked to focus on penalising the offenders, a Palike official said.