UP allows home isolation of asymptomatic Covid-19 pateints

The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday finally gave its nod for asymptomatic patients of Covid-19 to be isolated at home.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Monday finally gave its nod for asymptomatic patients of Covid-19 to be isolated at home.

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The move, which spells relief for residents and will help in reducing the stress on the healthcare facilities in the state, however, comes with a stringent bunch of guidelines.

Awanish Awasthi, UP’s additional chief secretary (home), on Monday stated that chief minister Yogi Adityanath has issued directions to allow home isolation of patients with no symptoms, while adding that asymptomatic patients who have HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), cancer or have had an organ transplant will have to mandatorily be admitted to hospitals if they test positive for Covid-19.

“Those who are allowed to be in home isolation should ensure that comply strictly with all guidelines to ensure that their family members as well as others do not get infected. Although, we have sufficient number of L1, L2 and L3 category beds available in UP (about 1.51 lakh), we are allowing home isolation after receiving requests from several people,” Awasthi added.

Till now, anyone, with or without symptoms, who had tested positive for Covid-19 was needed to get admitted to either an L1 (for asymptomatic cases), L2 (for cases with mild symptoms) or L3 (for critical cases) category hospitals, paid private Covid hospitals or paid isolation facilities in hotels.

The new directions require asymptomatic patients to remain at home with certain conditions – an undertaking promising compliance with all norms needs to be submitted by the patient; a consulting doctor will declare patient as asymptomatic; patient to ensure round-the-clock availability of a caregiver; minimum two toilets at home and separate isolation room at home. Patients will also have to purchase medical kits equipped with pulse oximeter, thermometer, mask, gloves, among others, for themselves.

State officials hope that with home isolation now being allowed, many people who were earlier scared of being isolated institutionally and were reluctant to give their samples will come forward to get tested.

“Earlier we allowed home quarantine for contacts of Covid-19 patients, but we found that many people were concealing their contact history, and were not coming forward to get tested fearing institutional isolation,” said Amit Mohan Prasad, UP’s additional chief secretary (health).

Ghaziabad officials said many people who were tested positive for the virus had given wrong information about themselves to authorities. There were around 500 such patients who had misreported their personal information to authorities, all of who have now been traced and sent to isolation facilities, they said.

“These people had provided wrong addresses or mobile numbers. Ghaziabad police’ electronic surveillance was used for tracing such patients and by Monday all of them had been traced and sent to isolation facilities. Even during our testing drives, about 2% of people had provided wrong addresses or mobile numbers,” said a senior health official, who did not wish to be indentified. “In localities like Indirapuram and Vaishali, where we deployed teams for rapid antigen testing, hardly 20-40 persons had come forward to give their samples. Each of our team have a capacity to conduct 200 tests per day,” he added.

Residents in Ghaziabad have welcomed the state government’s move. “People were not coming forward for testing and were even making arrangements in Delhi, where home isolation is allowed. So, we had written to the state government officials to allow home isolation Now we expect that people will come forward and shed their fears for getting admitted to government facilities. About 10 apartment owners’ associations (AOAs) have also shown their willingness to come up with isolation facilities in their community halls,” said Alok Kumar, founder member, federation of association of apartment owners.

The Ghaziabad district magistrate, however, said that the state government order has not mentioned anything on isolation centres in high-rises and will not be allowed for now.

“There is no mention of home isolation services by RWAs or the AOAs. So, it will not be allowed. At present, we are aiming at about conducting 3000-3500 testing per day. Now the home isolation is allowed, we expect that people will turn out more for getting themselves tested,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate.

“Apart from the district control room, the role of mohalla nigrani samitis and gram nigrani samitis will now be vital to keep an eye on patients who stay in home isolation. One our part, we are also fix responsibility of nearby houses to be sort of custodian of a positive patients and inform us in case the patient violate home isolation conditions,” the DM added.

On July 17, the state government had given allowed of paid isolation for asymptomatic patients as well as patients with very mild symptoms in hotels.

With the latest order, Ghaziabad officials said, the load on district’s L1 category hospitals is likely to reduce by around 70%. According to official estimates, out of total Covid-19 1,360 active cases in Ghaziabad (till July 20), the district has about 70% asymptomatic patients, 20% who treatment at L2 hospitals, and rest 10% who require critical care in L3 category hospitals.

In Ghaziabad, officials at present have identified about 4,816 L1 category beds, 1,026 L2/L3 beds, 117 ICU beds and 1,096 beds with oxygen facilities. Out of these, 876 L1 beds, 1,026 L2/L3 beds, and all ICU and beds with oxygen are fully operational.

ADHERING TO HOME ISOLATION GUIDELINES IMPORTANT, SAYS GB NAGAR DM

With home isolation allowed in the state, Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate Suhas LY said the asymptomatic patients will be allowed be at home, only if they strictly adhere to all the guidelines.

“It is mandatory for the patients their family members to comply with the standard operative protocols (SOPs). Use of masks and social distancing norms have to be followed by one and all in the district,” he said.

Stressing that better immunity is most important for checking the infection, he said that several awareness camps will also be organised, particularly in rural areas.

“Our volunteers will make people aware about the methods of increasing immunity. The volunteers will also help the residents in downloading the applications like Arogya Setu and Ayush Kavach,” he said.

He also said that since door-to-door survey and medical screening being conducted in the district, have yielded very encouraging results in identifying the infected people, the extended surveillance will continue.

“We have decided to held testing camps in all the areas. Our target is to test at least 3,000 persons in a day, through rapid antigen kits,” he said.