BMC to make institutional quarantine compulsory for city dwellers who share common bathrooms

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Sunday, March 14, directed all wards to start counselling active COVID-19 cases that have opted for home quarantine but are living in smaller flats. The virus infected persons staying in smaller flats with larger families should opt for institutional quarantine rather than home isolation.

This decision was taken in a weekly-review meeting on Sunday, March 14, to protect other family members. Moreover, the civic body has asked the officials to scale up its Covid care centres (CCC) to accommodate the patients.

On Sunday, wards were directed to allow home isolation only if there is a separate room and the person is adhering to all norms.

Institutional quarantine for slum dwellers, who share common bathrooms, is compulsory. But for people in residential societies with separate rooms and bathrooms, home isolation is permissible. Civic officials said they are getting complaints from societies about the regular violation of quarantine norms by residents. Contact tracing has shown entire families of COVID-19 cases testing positive.

As people are taking quarantine norms lightly, we are asking society residents to send us video clips or photos of persons violating quarantine or isolation rules. In such cases, they will be forced to move to institutional quarantine, said the medical officer.

According to reports, at present, 10-15 per cent of positive cases are getting hospitalised. With cases largely limited to residential societies, 80 per cent of the cases remain under home isolation.

Civic officials said another reason to push for institutional quarantine is to monitor coronavirus patients daily. Those with mild symptoms, but at the risk of severity are reaching the hospital late.

Earlier, home isolation was advised as people from middle and high-income groups complained about facilities in institutional quarantine. In last several months several centres have upped their care and facilities, added civic officials.

Mumbai recorded 1,963 new cases on Sunday, a 129 per cent rise from daily cases until a fortnight ago. With this, the total cases touched to 12,535 and a total of seven deaths were reported, taking the overall toll to 11,535.