Delhi L-G Anil Baijal makes 5-day institutional-quarantine mandatory for each COVID-19 case

New Delhi: Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal on Friday made five-day institutional-quarantine mandatory for every COVID-19 patient under home-quarantine in the national capital.

In his order, Delhi L-G said that after the five-day institutional-quarantine, asymptomatic COVID-19 patients will be sent for home-isolation.

“Five days institutional quarantine of each case under home-quarantine is to be made mandatory and, thereafter, (they) will be sent for home-isolation, except in cases where symptoms require further hospitalization,” L-G Anil Baijal said in his order.

However, responding to the order, a Delhi government official said that this will only serve to scare away people from getting tested. There is already a serious shortage of docs, nurses for treating COVID-19 patients here, the Delhi government said after LG's guidelines on home isolation.

According to the government, there are around 8,500 COVID-19 patients in home isolation in Delhi, who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. 

India registered over 10,000 cases for the eighth day in a row. The country has witnessed a surge of 1,89,997 infections from June 1 till 19 with Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh among the top five states that have seen a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases.

Of the 336 new deaths reported till Friday morning, 100 were in Maharashtra, 65 in Delhi, 49 in Tamil Nadu, 31 in Gujarat, 30 in Uttar Pradesh, 12 each in Karnataka and West Bengal, 10 in Rajasthan, six in Jammu and Kashmir, five in Punjab, four each in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, three in Telangana, two in Andhra Pradesh and one each in Assam, Jharkhand and Kerala.

India is the fourth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the US, Brazil and Russia. According to the Johns Hopkins University, which has been compiling COVID-19 data from all over the world, India is at the eighth position in terms of the death toll.