LUCKNOW: As UP's Covid-19 tally breached 50,000-mark on Monday with 1924 fresh cases during last 24 hours, the state government decided to allow home quarantine facility for asymptomatic patients with strict adherence to the pandemic protocol.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said the government took the decision in wake of the increasing demand to allow asymptomatic patients and patients with very mild symptoms to remain in home quarantine. The issue was also recently taken up by the Allahabad High Court. However, the
decision on home quarantine would rest with the doctors concerned on the basis of the condition of the patient.
The need to approve home quarantine phenomenon also gained ground as a large number of asymptomatic patients were found hiding their infection fearing a hospital quarantine.
Centre’s guidelines also recommend home quarantine for asymptomatic patients.
UP, however, has been shifting the patients to L1 Covid hospitals. The fear of isolation at Covid centres is the reason behind people not coming forward for tests.
As a result, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, on Monday, set up a committee comprising ministers of health and medical education along with their respective Additional Chief Secretaries and asked chart out the course of home quarantine, lay down the guidelines and submit the report by evening.
The CM laid stress on the condition that home quarantine should be allowed only if all protocols related to the disease were followed.
State health minister Jai Pratap Singh said that the detailed guidelines for home quarantine were being worked out and would be spelt out on Tuesday. He claimed that the state would follow the Centre’s norms with minor changes as per the requirement.
However, the state government clarified by issuing a communiqué that the decision for home quarantine was not taken because of inadequate facilities as enough beds – 1.51 lakh — were there to accommodate all patients.
Fearing that there may be a spurt in cases as a large number of asymptomatic people were hiding their infection, the CM said concerted efforts should be made to trace the contacts of a person who has tested positive, according to Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Awasthi.
Besides, the CM said people should be apprised of the necessary precautions for which an awareness campaign should also be launched with the help of the print, electronic and social media.
He said the use of masks and social distancing norms should be strictly followed. Meanwhile, door-to-door scanning exercise would now be a continuous process in the state as it had shown good results and came handy in identifying the vulnerable section of the population with co-morbidity.
In the meantime, with 46 fresh fatalities in the state due to the pandemic, the death toll reached 1192. While there are 19,137 active cases, 30,831 patients have recovered, said ASC, health, Amit Mohan Prasad.