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Coronavirus: Quarantine wards being readied in Delhi
New Delhi: Authorities have begun setting up quarantine wards for persons who came in contact with the six confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in the national capital.
New Delhi: Authorities have begun setting up quarantine wards for persons who came in contact with the six confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in the national capital.
The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) has earmarked its vacant flats in the outskirts of the city – Dwarka Sector 16, Sultanpuri and Narela – to accommodate such families and individuals.
Bipin Rai, DUSIB member, said, “These are EWS flats (for the Economically Weaker Sections) which remained unoccupied, with single rooms of 360 square metre. Right now, we have got a request from the Delhi health department to provide 256 such flats on an emergency basis.”
The apartments are being readied as part of the first phase of the project, after which apartments in areas such as Sultanpuri and Narela will be set up, he said. “The DUSIB’s job is to provide basic amenities like space (flats), water and power and sewage connections. After this, food for those quarantined will be arranged for by district authorities, and the medical set-up (furniture) and doctors and nurses will be provided by the health department,” Rai said.
Government agencies are tracing hundreds of people who came in close contact with the six Delhi residents who tested positive for Covid-19 when their samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune. While one person was from Mayur Vihar, Trinagar and Janakpuri each, three others belonged to Uttam Nagar in west Delhi. A list of their close friends, family members and colleagues, provided by the patients themselves, who they met before falling ill, are being contacted.
Dr Lallan Verma, a senior public health officer with the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), explained, “Isolation wards are meant for infected individuals while quarantine wards are for healthy persons who came in physical contact with them, including shaking hands or sharing a work table.”
“In isolation wards, we do not mix Covid-19 patients with those admitted for other medical conditions like hepatitis, colitis, etc., as they could also get infected. This is considering the fact that such patients already have weak immunity. As for quarantine candidates, it’s not necessary for them to get admitted in a designated quarantine ward. They could just restrict themselves to a well-ventilated room of their house for 14 days, doing their own laundry and avoiding contact with family members for that time,” Verma added.
The north civic body has already set up an isolation ward at the Hindu Rao Hospital in Malka Ganj. It is one of the 19 designated hospitals for this in Delhi declared by the state government.
Meanwhile, the south and east civic bodies are setting up quarantine wards at Purnima Sethi Hospital in Kalkaji, Swami Dayanand Hospital in Dilshad Garden and Veer Savarkar Hospital in Karwal Nagar.
Besides, these two corporations are earmarking their community halls to be turned into quarantine wards. “We have stopped taking bookings for weddings or any other functions in our community halls from today. We are returning the money deposited for bookings earlier, and prepping them up for quarantine wards now,” said Alka Sharma, additional commissioner, east civic body.
