The Centre on Thursday asked states to use technology like mobile phone tracking to keep a tab on people under home quarantine after the issue of difficulties in tracking such people was raised at a meeting Union cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba chaired with representatives of the state governments, officials said.
Issues like exorbitant fee charged by private hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients when government hospital beds are scarce were also discussed. Central government officials pointed out that Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have capped the fee and others states can follow suit. Telangana’s representative raised the private hospital issue while representatives of West Bengal and Maharashtra spoke about difficulties because of the closure of public transport including metros.
Maharashtra chief secretary Ajoy Mehta suggested local trains should be allowed to run. He suggested that offices should not be allowed to operate at full strength and only 15% to 20% of staff should be allowed.
Bengal chief secretary Rajeeva Sinha cited the problems in conducting door-to-door tests in slums and highly-populated areas. He also told Gauba it is extremely difficult to keep track of people supposed to be under home quarantine.
States, including West Bengal, have directed various categories of people, including patients with mild symptoms, to remain under home quarantine because of a shortage of hospital beds.
Gauba pointed out that some states were utilising technology and mobile phones to track people under home quarantine. He said whenever directions are given to people for self-quarantine, the authorities must also give guidance notes. Gauba added that officials in some states were even calling individuals twice daily to ask them about their well-being.
The states were also told that if a Covid-19 positive person dies, his or her death should not be attributed to comorbidity alone but identified as Covid-related mortality. They were once again told to improve their ambulance services and ensure that patients do not have to spend hours in the triage areas of hospitals.
Maharashtra’s representative said they have set rules to find out lapses and if a person dies within 36 to 48 hours of his or her admission, then it is considered that the surveillance at the district level has failed. Parameters for hospitals, too, have been set, Maharashtra informed the Centre.
