Five-day institutional quarantine for Covid-19 cases: Plea challenges LG's order in Delhi high court

NEW DELHI: A day after the Delhi Disaster Management Authority and Lt Governor Anil Baijal issued an order to discontinue telephonic contact with home quarantine individuals, and made it mandatory for Covid-19 positive persons to undergo five days of institutional quarantine, the move was challenged in Delhi high court.
The plea says such directions are harsh and force patients to undergo five days of institutional quarantine, that too when Delhi government is unable to provide adequate number of beds and facilities to patients who are in dire need of hospitalization.
In fact, the Delhi government has already issued press releases to the effect that the entire manpower of the state is already stretched, and they will have to make large quarantine centres for housing thousands of asymptomatic patients, the plea which is likely to come up for hearing on Tuesday, argues.
It says such a direction will have disastrous effects since compulsory Institutional quarantine is most likely to deter people from getting themselves tested for the fear of being sent to government run quarantine centres.
Also, more and more beds will be required for these institutional quarantine cases whereas extremely sick patients in dire need of beds may be left unattended and without beds even as the move will overburden isolation centres which are unhygienic.
Lastly, the plea says elderly people will be put to hardship both physically and mentally.
"Owing to the urgency of the matter where implementation of such harsh measures will lead to a total chaos and shortage of beds in hospitals, the petitioner is filing the present petition in the interest of public seeking immediate quashing of the order dated 19th June 2020 issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority," it adds.