EPIDEMIC ACT WILL ADD MORE TEETH IN FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19
NEW DELHI: Authorities have begun setting up quarantine wards for persons who came in contact with the six confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in the national capital.
The Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) has earmarked its vacant flats in the outskirts of the city – Dwarka Sector 16, Sultanpuri and Narela.
Bipin Rai, DUSIB member, said, “These are EWS flats which remained unoccupied, with rooms of 360 sqm. We have got a request from the health dept for 256 such flats urgently.”
The apartments are being readied as part of the first phase of the project, after which apartments in areas such as Sultanpuri and Narela will be set up, he said. “The DUSIB’S job is to provide basic amenities like space (flats), water and power and sewage connections. After this, food for those quarantined will be arranged for by district authorities, and the medical set-up (furniture) and doctors and nurses will be provided by the health department,” Rai said.
Agencies are tracing hundreds of people who came in close contact with the six Delhi residents who tested positive for Covid-19 when their samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune. While one person was from Mayur Vihar, Trinagar and Janakpuri each, three others belonged to Uttam Nagar in west Delhi. A list of their close friends, family members and colleagues, provided by the patients themselves, who they met before falling ill, are being contacted.
Dr Lallan Verma, a senior public health officer, south body, said, “Isolation wards are for infected individuals while quarantine wards are for healthy persons who came in physical contact with them.”
“In isolation wards, we do not mix Covid-19 patients with those admitted for other medical conditions like hepatitis, colitis, etc. As for quarantine candidates, it’s not necessary for them to get admitted in a quarantine ward. They could just restrict themselves to a well-ventilated room of their house for 14 days, doing their own laundry and avoiding contact with family,” he added.
The north body has set up an isolation ward at Hindu Rao Hospital in Malka Ganj. It is one of the 19 designated hospitals for this in Delhi. The south and east bodies are setting up quarantine wards at Purnima Sethi Hospital in Kalkaji, Swami Dayanand Hospital in Dilshad Garden and Veer Savarkar Hospital in Karwal Nagar. The two bodies are earmarking community halls to be turned into quarantine wards. “We have stopped taking bookings. We are returning booking money,” said Alka Sharma, additional commissioner, east.