As cases surge, experts ask J&K admn to home quarantine patients with mild, no symptoms
In the past ten days, over a thousand infections have been reported from various districts of Jammu and Kashmir, and doctors opine that if this trend continues, as the administration is now planning to open the UT after a long lockdown, the transmission could spiral out of control.
With the surge in number of Covid-19 cases in J&K, doctors and experts have suggested the administration to home quarantine patients with mild and asymptomatic conditions.
In the past ten days, over a thousand infections have been reported from various districts of Jammu and Kashmir, and doctors opine that if this trend continues, as the administration is now planning to open the UT after a long lockdown, the transmission could spiral out of control.
Dr Naveed Shah of Chest Disease Hospital, Srinagar, who recently tested positive for the disease, stressed that the government should change its strategy. “So many cases are being detected each day. Where are we going to keep these patients, their families and contacts? We have to alter our strategy of testing and quarantine,” he stated in a tweet.
Dr Ijtaba Shafi, one of the health officers posted in Ganderbal district, said it was time to take a call on home isolation of asymptomatic/mildly symptomatic Covid-19 patients. “Let institutions be demarcated for low/high risk cases only. The surge is alarming. Some expert should speak on this before it’s too late.”
Paediatrician and Doctors Association Kashmir president and Dr Suhail Naik said that on an average, one infected person has 50 primary contacts. “Around 200 cases land every day, leading 1,000 into administrative quarantine. India spends ₹2,440 on each person in quarantine centres. Soon, we will have shortage of beds, chaos and confusion. Time has come to stop administrative medicine,” said cautioned Naik.
Dr Bilal Khan, a prominent gastroenterologist, said Kashmir has already entered into community transmission and now there is need to do mass testing. Medical experts believe that getting people back from different parts of the globe, especially those from affected areas, has also led to a surge in positive cases.
Former faculty at Government Medical College, Srinagar, Dr Khursheed Qureshi, said the government should go for home quarantine, instead of administrative quarantine.
In the last four days, J&K witnessed over 400 infections. “We can’t hold the administrative quarantine for much long as it has many loopholes. The administration should pay serious attention towards shifting from this strategy. The virus is going to stay here, so we need to remain prepared for it and how to tackle it. The experience of administrative quarantine didn’t prove much beneficial and it should be tweaked,” said Dr Amjid Ali, senior consultant at Government Medical College, Baramulla.
“More than two lakh people have been tested and that is the main reason why we have registered a spike in Covid-19 cases,” a senior official from the administration said.