‘The facility is fine but I would be better at my home’

come to the facility hoping there would be better medical facilities. “I feel weak and breathless. I thought I’d be kept under observation. But the doctor only checks up on me over the phone. The facility is good, but I think I would have taken better care of myself at home, as there is no special medical treatment for this,” she said.

The 120-bed CCC in Badarpur is in a government school. The isolation facility comprises 23 classrooms, each housing four or five patients. Currently, there are 97 patients at the facility, which is manned by a team of five doctors and support staff.

The situation is the same at Narela, Bakkarwala and the Mandoli jail complex. At Narela, the government has turned 1,000 DDA LIG flats into a CCC facility. Currently, there are 450 patients here, including those who have returned from abroad under the Vande Bharat mission.

At these flats, each room has a separate bathroom. But CCCS operating from school complexes such as in Badarpur and New Friends Colony require residents to use common lavatories.

While Sagar and Anita said that the food at the centre was good, another woman who requested anonymity said that her daughter and in-laws, who had tested positive on June 19, didn’t get dinner at the Mandoli jail complex CCC as they reached the centre late.

“They were taken to the quarantine facility in an ambulance. But as they reached the centre late, they didn’t get anything to eat that day despite several requests to the authorities. But now, all three of them are recovering well,” the woman, a resident of Deoli, said.

A senior government official said, “These facilities have been set up in a short period and their functioning has been streamlined now. We try to address logistical issues immediately. We have not received any complaint so far .”

With the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, headed by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal, making it mandatory for asymptomatic patients to be taken to these centres for clinical assessments, many residents’ welfare associations opposed the ide.

Rajiv Kakria, the convener of Save Our City campaign and a resident of GK-I said, “If a person is asymptomatic, why should they be taken to Covid Care Centres for clinical screening? We have been demanding that a strong monitoring mechanism involving RWAS be put in place for effective management and coordination.”

A Delhi government spokesperson said, “As and when we get a complaint, we rectify it immediately.”