Delhi-LG Anil Baijal clarifies institutional quarantine order, deems it mandatory for those lacking home isolation facilities

New Delhi: Amid objections by the Kejriwal government to his order for mandatory five-day institutional quarantine for COVID-19 patients, Lt Governor Anil Baijal on Saturday said it would be required for only those who do not need hospitalisation and do not have adequate facilities for home isolation. The order of five-day mandatory institutional quarantine was opposed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Deputy Manish Sisodia in a meeting of Delhi State Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Saturday. [caption id=“attachment_8504351” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] File image of Lt Governor Anil Baijal. News18[/caption] Sisodia said the meeting also decided that a maximum of 60 percent beds of private hospitals will be used for COVID-19 patients and of those, 100 percent coronavirus beds will be subsidised. The Lt Governor after the meeting said in a tweet, “Regarding institutional isolation, only those COVID positive cases which do not require hospitalisation on clinical assessment and do not have adequate facilities for home isolation would be required to undergo institutional isolation.” In another tweet, he said the DDMA approved recommendations of a high-level expert committee for fixing subsidised rates for COVID-19 treatment in private hospitals of Delhi. Sisodia said the LG’s reservations over home isolation were resolved in the SDMA meeting and the home quarantine system will continue. “The reservations of LG over home isolation were resolved in the SDMA meeting and the home isolation system will continue. We thank LG for this. Under the leadership of our Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, we will not let Delhi people have any inconvenience,” he tweeted. Earlier, opposing the Lt Governor’s order issued on Friday for mandatory five-day institutional quarantine, Sisodia had said, Every day more than 3,000 patients are coming for COVID-19 treatment. According to the figures by the Health Department, by June 30 we will have one lakh patients, by July 15 , we will have 1.25 lakh patients, and by July 31 we will have almost 5.25 lakh patients. This will be the scenario if we continue with the home isolation system." Sisodia said the meeting also decided that a maximum of 60 per cent beds of private hospitals will be used for COVID-19 patients and of those, 100 per cent COVID beds will be subsidised. “The Central government committee had recommended reducing rates of 60 per cent COVID beds in private hospitals, so less number of beds were available at lower rates. Now, 100 per cent beds will be available at lower rates,” he said in another tweet.