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Dedicated biomedical waste collection for home-isolated Covid patients: Mohali DC
Adequate sanitisation arrangements are also in place, the deputy commissioner informed, urging people not to panic.
Allaying people’s fear of catching infection from those in home-isolation, deputy commissioner (DC) Girish Dayalan informed that no critically ill or serious Covid-19 patient is put in home quarantine.
Doctors analyse the patients for co-morbidities and if they seem fit enough to recuperate at home, they are allowed to isolate there. Similarly, after recceing the locality, availability of separate room and washroom for the patient at his home, he/she is granted the permission, he said.
Urging people not to panic over home-quarantined patients in their neighbourhoods, the DC said such persons are not supposed to come out of their premises so no direct threat of spread of infection exists. However, for the collection of biomedical waste of Covid-19 patients in home isolation, the district administration has passed orders assigning the responsibility to various government departments, he said.
Giving details of the initiative, Dayalan said the municipal corporation and nagar councils would be responsible for collecting waste from the Covid-19 patients’ homes falling in their respective jurisdictions. Block development and panchayat officers will cater to villages, while GMADA will collect biomedical waste from urban areas outside the municipal limits. Each of these departments would provide yellow-coloured waste disposal bags in sufficient quantity to the patient as soon as he is home quarantined and thereafter arrange for daily garbage collection and disposal through the agency roped in by them.
The DC said a person who does not require direct medical care can recuperate best in his/her house, thereby making room for critical patients in hospitals. “It is a well-deliberated mechanism adopted on the directions of the Centre and state governments for ensuring right persons in the right place,” he said, adding, “We need not panic on this account. This crisis period is a test of human empathy and brotherhood.”
Adequate sanitisation arrangements are also in place, Dayalan informed.
Besides dedicated medical follow up of home-quarantined patients, he said, the administration will provide a kit containing vitamin supplements, antipyretic medicine and a pulse oximeter to measure the blood-oxygen level. The pulse oximeter would however be given only for the quarantine duration and the patient would have to return it upon recovery.
