Sisodia urges Amit Shah to change new policy for coronavirus cases

The Deputy Chief Minister said that now every person has to be taken to a "quarantine centre" due to which officials and ambulance systems are under pressure and people are taken to quarantine centres in buses

(From R-L) Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Dy CM Manish Sisodia and Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain attend a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah (unseen) to discuss the coronavirus situation, at North Block in New Delhi, Sunday, June 14, 2020.

Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to change a new policy under which people, who test coronavirus positive using RT-PCR (Rapid Antibody and Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) method, have to be taken to a ‘COVID Care Centre’ for assessment, even for home quarantine.

“Yesterday, I had written a letter to LG (Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal) sir to change the new policy according to which, every corona patient has to go to a quarantine centre, which is creating a lot of problem... I had told LG sir to call SDMA (State Disaster Management Authority) meeting and change the policy. But the LG did not reply to the letter and did not call the SDMA's meeting,” Mr. Sisodia said while addressing a video briefing.

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“Today, I have written a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah to end the new policy that is creating problems. I request Amit Shah

ji to intervene and change the policy... else people of Delhi will face a lot of difficulties,” he added.

He said that now every person has to be taken to a "quarantine centre" and officials and ambulance systems are under pressure and people are taken to quarantine centres in buses.

The new policy

Currently, there are two types of COVID-19 tests done in the capital: Rapid antigen test, which gives result in 30 minutes, and RT-PCR test, which will take more time to give the result.

Under the second test, the result usually comes at least after a day and a team of officials will call the positive person over phone to convey the results.

If the person is in moderate or severe category, then s/he will be transferred to a hospital. But people who say over phone that they are mild or pre-symptomatic will be shifted to a COVID-19 Care Centre (CCC) for assessment of eligibility for home isolation, according to the new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) released on Monday.

According to the previous SOP, this visit to CCC was not needed and a team of officials did the assessment at the person’s home.

On Sunday, Home Minister Amit Shah had said that all COVID-19 positive cases should be first referred to COVID Care Centres and the new SOP was issued following it.