Capital readies more quarantine centres

According to a report accessed by HT, Delhi has 17 institutional quarantine centres that are currently accommodating 3,220 suspected patients.

Districts across the national Capital have been asked to identify additional quarantine centres, including paid facilities, for suspected Covid-19 patients, as the number of positive cases in the city spiked to 2,081 on Monday.

A traffic jam was witnessed at Ghazipur border as Central govt employees resumed work. (Raj K Raj/HT)

According to a report accessed by HT, Delhi has 17 institutional quarantine centres that are currently accommodating 3,220 suspected patients. Of this, 2,852 persons are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation that took place in Nizamuddin in mid-March, while 368 were categorised as ‘others’ (contact related).

As per the report, there are only 1,185 vacant beds in all of Delhi’s quarantine centres. Gauging the pace of new positive cases and the increasing number of containment zones in the city, district magistrates have been asked to arrange for additional centres and also offer the option of paid quarantine in hotels.

The South West zone is one of the first districts to have its quarantine plan ready. “As part of our exigency plan, we have already identified four additional quarantine centres, two of which will be paid and the others free. In case there is a sudden need for more quarantine centres, we will be able to start these within a few hours of intimation,” said Rahul Singh, district magistrate (South West).

In the South district, officials said they have sent a proposal to the health department to keep three hotels ready. “At present, we have around 150 people living in our quarantine centres. We have zeroed in on three hotels, in and around Green Park, to provide paid facilities,” said the official, on condition of anonymity.

However, revenue officials in New Delhi district said the need for additional quarantine centres has not yet arisen in their area. “Our existing centres still have at least 252 beds available. So, we are yet to go on to the next phase of getting more centres ready,” said a senior revenue official of New Delhi district, on condition of anonymity.

In the Shahdara district, there was no vacancy as of Monday. “Our quarantine centre at Delhi Police residential complex has a capacity of 450 people. But, despite having 141 beds vacant, we are temporarily keeping the vacancies suspended because some more recently tested positive for Covid-19. So, the rooms and all other areas are undergoing thorough sanitisation and disinfection at the moment,” said a revenue official of Shahdara district.

At present, the biggest quarantine facility in Delhi is in North district’s Narela, where flats of the Delhi Development Authority are being used. The centre has a capacity of 1,260 beds, of which only 176 were available as of Monday.

Earlier, the paid quarantine centres in Aerocity near the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport was the largest quarantine facility in the country. The paid centres, set up in five plush hotels of Aerocity, were shut by the Delhi government on April 10 after all 608 persons who were using the facility successfully finished their quarantine. Most of them were passengers who had arrived in Delhi from other countries and had to undergo the mandated quarantine.

A quarantine facility has a dedicated team of doctors and health workers, besides centre-wise dedicated sanitation staff. Such a facility is different from a Covid Care Centre (CCC), which is for people who show symptoms and test positive for the virus.

In a quarantine facility, mostly asymptomatic persons or others who had come in contact with a Covid-19 positive person are kept for a period of 14 days. They are allowed to leave the facility only after they test negative for Covid-19 twice, including one while exiting the centre, after which they are mandated to home-quarantine for 14 days.