Flyers under quarantine to get indelible ink stamps
Public health experts see people fleeing quarantine, not following norms
nNEWDELHI: The government is considering stamping hands of all those who arrive in the country from abroad with indelible ink to make it easier to track and find people, who evade the mandatory 14-day home-quarantine protocol upon arrival, officials aware of the matter said. This follows a barrage of cases across India of people defying norms required to arrest the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic.
Over the past week, people have gone missing from hospitals, ignored rules to quarantine themselves at home, or suppressed Covid-19 symptoms, putting themselves and others at risk of the infection. The 18-year-old son of a top bureaucrat defied doctors’ suggestions for two days before testing positive for the virus in the latest such case reported from West Bengal on Tuesday.
“With so many people resisting quarantine, the government is looking into hand stamping and fining people to enforce home quarantine. People should be more socially responsible... with so many cases of people running away and breaking quarantine, we have to find ways to ensure compliance to protect the community from infection,” said All India Institute of Medical Sciences (New Delhi) director Dr Randeep Guleria. He said hospitals are overflowing. “We need beds for patients. With numbers growing, we cannot use hospital beds for suspected cases; home-quarantine is necessary.”
Travel restrictions, testing, and social distancing, including home-quarantining suspected cases and people at risk, helped China stop community transmission of the disease. China reported no new locally transmitted cases on Wednesday for the first time since December.
A public health expert, who requested anonymity, said people resisting being screened and quarantined have become a huge hurdle in the infection control.
“With the infection spreading to almost all countries, the government will have to enforce home quarantine to stop the infection.”
Authorities across states have struggled to check patients from fleeing quarantine facilities and enforcing home-quarantine measures. On Thursday, Western Railway authorities de-boarded 17 passengers, who were using public transport despite being advised to home quarantine.
The authorities were able to identify them on the basis of their stamped hands. Maharashtra this week began stamping hands of people, who have been advised home quarantine.
Six passengers were de-boarded from Mumbai-delhi Rajdhani Express, five passengers from Kutch Super Fast Express and six from Saurashtra Express. Maharashtra has recorded the highest number of coronavirus cases. State home minister Anil Deshmukh has directed police to take action against people fleeing quarantine or isolation under the Epidemic Disease Act for endangering lives.
A 56-year-old man, who had returned from the US and was screened at the Bengaluru Airport on Tuesday, was found to have a fever and advised quarantine at a hospital. But he escaped.
“It is not the government’s job alone. Everyone should come together and ensure voluntary testing, quarantine when required,” said a Karnataka health official.
In Odisha, at least four people suspected to be Covid-19 patients fled a hospital and did not undergo self-quarantine.
West Bengal’s first Covid-19 positive patient defied advice at the Kolkata airport for reporting to a hospital after landing from London. He roamed around the city for two days, spreading panic at the state secretariat, where his mother, a senior bureaucrat, attended office and held meetings a day before her son was detected. (with inputs from Mumbai, Bengaluru,
Bhubaneswar and Kolkata)