Home Quarantine: Need For Caution  

The air traffic has resumed with the truncated schedule. It saw several cancellations in the beginning. While the resumption has been welcomed by many, it is fraught with dangers amid unrelenting of the novel covid-19 cases, thus were apprehensions by many others. Among others, the worries are premised on limits as far as quarantine monitoring is concerned.

Soon after the announcement of air travel resumption, all passengers coming to J&K were to be kept in institutional quarantine for 14 days and tested for COVID-19 using RTPCR test.

However, before the first flight landed at Srinagar or Jammu airport, the government modified its earlier order and allowed the home quarantine for certain categories like pregnant women in the last trimester certified by doctor, cancer patients on chemotherapy, chronically ill patients discharged from a hospital after a surgical procedure, those needing dialysis, mothers with infants below one year, children below 10 years travelling alone without a family member, the government of India personnel on bonafide duty as well as passenger travels with an RTPCR test negative certificate from an ICMR approved labouratory not older than 2 days before arrival date.

The home isolation has been considered an effective option for patients with mild or no symptoms of the coronavirus disease. This is along the lines of a health ministry advisory from the end of April, which had allowed home isolation, but under conditions and among others included immediate medical help if severe symptoms developed.

The government’s call for home isolation is welcome but should have been avoided in the last two categories of people for various reasons. The government of India personnel does not require even as a pre-arrival test while in the case of the last category with negative test certificate not older than two days is also tricky given the fact that one could contract the disease in the fraction of seconds and this possibility remains while someone shares flight with any covid-19 patient (s) or for that matter with an infected patient(s) between time after the test and the report validity.

The government’s decision seems to in reorganization with the strain on the health care infrastructure as well as on the belief that many patients may also be able to cope better emotionally with the disease if allowed to recuperate with their families. While decision stands taken, the home quarantine plan should be maintained under strict monitoring on the ground, which in itself is not easy given inherit weak governance structure, and the government apparatus busy tackling several other related crises. Amidst this, every citizen, especially those allowed home quarantine, need to exercise responsibility and care in letter and spirit.

       

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