No more posters outside COVID-19 patients' houses: Delhi govt

New Delhi: The practice of putting up home isolation posters outside houses of those who have tested positive for Covid will end in the city, officials have decided. The move comes a week after the Delhi High Court sought the state government’s response on a plea asking officials to do away with the practice. The poster mentions the number of people in a household that have tested positive and the duration of home isolation. Existing posters will also be taken down.

According to sources, the decision has been taken after it was found out that several people, even those with symptoms, were not coming forward to get tested fearing that a poster will be put up outside their homes. A senior government official said: “Due to the stigma attached with the disease, not many people were voluntarily coming forward to get tested. The move has been taken to motivate people. In several cases, patients have reached the hospital in a severe stage which leads to complications. We do not want that scenario.”

There are 22,232 active cases as of now, out of which 12,890 are under home isolation. Total cases in the city crossed the 3-lakh mark on Thursday with 2,726 fresh cases being reported. The total cases touched 3,00,833 while the death toll is 5,653 with 37 new deaths reported on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a revised containment strategy prepared by an expert committee led by NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul has suggested to the Delhi government that testing should not be geared towards targets but towards surveillance. “Increase in number of tests should be reflected in increased case finding. Merely increasing the number of tests to reduce positivity rate would not be appropriate,” the report said.

The committee said that more than 80% tests have been conducted by rapid antigen test and in a few districts, it is up to 90-95%. Positivity rate is 4.3% by RAT and 20.33% by RT-PCR as on September 24.

The committee has also said that city hospitals should be prepared for a surge of 15,000 positive cases per day with the change in season and movement of patients from other states.

Expressing concern over mortalities reported in under 15 (1.5% approx) and young age groups 16-44 years (17%), it suggested a regular death audit review of Covid and non-Covid mortalities in coordination with the National Centre for Disease Control.